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UrnPRO^ETIC VOICES ABOUT AMERICA: A MONOGRAPH. 



^ 






[From the Atlantic Monthly for September, 



HE' discovery of America by Chris- 
;'2;'*A topher Columbus is the greatest 
event of all secular history. Besides 
the potato, the turkey, and maize, which 
it introduced at once for the nourish- 
ment and comf(^t of the Old World, 
this discovery opened the door to in- 
fluences infinite in extent and benefi- 
cence. Measure them, describe them, 
picture them, you cannot. While this 
continent was unknown, imagination 
invested it with proverbial magnifi- 
cence. It was the Orient. When af- 
terwards it took its place in geogra- 
phy, imagination found another field 
in trying to portray its future history. 
If the Golden Age is before, and not 
behind, as is now happily the prevail- 
ing faith, then indeed must America 
share at least, if it does not monopo- 
lize, the promised good. 

Before the voyage of CoJumbus in 
1492, nothing of America was really 
known. A few scraps from antiquity, 
a few rumors from the ocean, and a few 
speculations from science, were all that 
the inspired navigator found to guide 
him. Foremost among all these were 
the well-known verses of the Spaniard' 
Seneca, in the chorus of his " Medea," 
which for generations had been the fin- 
ger-point to an undiscovered world. 

" Venient annis sjecula seris 
Quibus Oceanus vincula rerum 
Laxet, et ingens pateat tellus, 
Tethysque novos detegat orbes ; 
Nee sit terris ultima Thule." * 

" In tardy years the epoch will come 
in which the ocean will unloose the 
bonds of nature, and the great earth 
will stretch out, and the sea will dis- 
close new worlds ; nor will Thule be 
the most remote on the globe." 

Two, if not more, different copies of 
these verses are extant in the hand- 
writing of Columbus, — precious auto- 
graphs ; one in the sketch of his work 
on the Prophecies, another in a letter 
addressed to Queen Isabella; and it 

* Seneca, Medea, Act II. v. 371. 



7-] 



would seem as if there was still a third 
entered among his observations of lu- 
nar eclipses at Hayti and Jamaica. By 
these verses the great discoverer sailed. 
But Humboldt, who has illustrated the 
enterprise with all that classical or 
mediaeval literature affords,* does not 
hesitate to declare his conviction, that 
the discovery of a new continent was 
more completely foreshadowed in the 
simple geographical statement of the 
Greek Strabo, who, after a long life of 
travel, sat down in the eighty-fourth 
year of his age, during the reign of 
Augustus, to write the geography of 
the world, including its cosmography. 
In this work, where are gathered the 
results of ancient study and experience, 
the venerable author, after alluding to 
the possibility of passing direct from 
Spain to India, and explaining that the 
inhabited world is that which we in- 
habit and know, thus lifts the curtain : 
" There may be in the same temperate 
zone izuo and indeed more inhabited 
la?ids, especially nearest the parallel of 
Things or Athens, prolonged into the 
Atlantic Ocean." f This was the voice 
of ancient science. 

Before the voyage of Columbus, 
Pulci, the Itahan poet, in his Morganie 
Afaggiore, sometimes called the last 
of the romances and the earliest of the 
Italian epics, reveals an undiscovered 
world beyond the Pillars of Hercules. 

" Know that this theory is false ; kis bark 
The daring mariner shall urge far o'er 
The ■western wave, a smooth and level plain. 
Albeit the earth is fashioned like a wheel. 
Man was in ancient days of grosser mould. 
And Hercules might blush to learn how far 
Beyond the limits he had vainly set 
The didlest sea-boat soon shall wing her tutty. 
" Men shall descry another hemisphere. 
Since to one common centre all things tend ; 
So earth, by curious mystery divine 
Well balanced, hangs amid the starry spheres. 
A t oitr Antipodes are cities, states, 
A nd thronged empires, ne^er divined of yore. 
* Humboldt, Examefi critique de la Geographie, 
Tome I. pp. loi, 162. See also Humboldt, Kosmos, 
Vol. II. pp. 516, 556, SS7, 645. 
t Strabo, Lib. I. p. 65 ; Lib. II. p. 118. 



IT/ 79 



276 



^rophetic Voices about America. 



[September, 



But see, the sun speed-s on his western path 
To glad the nations with expected light." * 

This translation is by our own emi- 
nent historian, Prescott, who first called 
attention to this testimony,! which is not 
mentioned even by Humboldt. Leigh 
Hunt referred to it at a later day.f 
Puici was born in Florence, 1431, and 
died there, 1487, five years before Co- 
lumbus sailed, so that he was not aided 
by any rumor of the discovery which 
he so distinctly predicts. 

Passing from the discovery, it may 
not be uninteresting to collect some of 
the prophetic voices about the future 
of America, the "All-Hail Hereafter" of 
our continent. They will have a lesson 
also. Seeing what has been already 
fulfilled, we may better judge what to 
expect. I shall set them forth in the 
order of time, prefacing each prediction 
with an account of the author sufficient 
to explain its origin and character. If 
some are already familiar, others are lit- 
tle known. Brought together into one 
body, on the principle of our national 
Union, E pluribits uman, they must 
give new confidence in the destinies of 
the Republic. 

Of course I shall embrace only what 
has been said seriously by those whose 
words are important ; not an oracular 
response, which may receive a double 
interpretation, like the deceptive replies 
to Croesus and to Pyrrhus ; and not a 
saying, such as is described by Sir 
Thomas Browne when he remarks, in 
his " Christian Morals," that " many 
positions seem quodlibetically consti- 
tuted, and, like a Delphian blade, will 
cut both ways." § Men who have lived 
much and felt strongly see further than 
others. Their vision penetrates the 
future. Second sight is little more than 
clearness of sight. Milton tells us, 

" That old experience does attain 
To something like prophetic strain." 

Sometimes this strain is attained even 
in youth. 

* PuIci, Mor^ante Ma!:giore, Canto XXV. st. 
2E9, 230. 

t Prescott, Ferdinand and Isabella, Vol. 11. 
pp. 117. 118. 

X Leigh Hunt, Stories from the Italian Poet.s. p. 171. 

§ Browne, Works, Pickering's edition. Vol. IV. 
p. 81. 



famous author "plainly discovers his 
expectation to be th#same with that 



Sir Thomas Browne. — 16S2. 

Dr. Johnson called attention to a 
tract of Sir Thomas Browne entitled, 
"A Prophecy concerning the Future 
State of Several Nations," where the 
" plainly 
be th#s: 

entertained later with more confidence 
by Dr. Berkeley, that America will be 
the seat of the fifth empire^ * The 
tract is vague, but prophetic. 

Sir Thomas Browne was born igtli 
October, 1605, and died 19th October, 
1682. His tract was published, two 
years after his death, in a collection 
of Miscellanies, edited by Dr. Tenison. 
As a much-admired author, some of 
whose writings belong to our English 
classics, his prophetic prolusions are 
not unworthy of notice. They are 
founded on verses entitled " The Proph- 
ecy," purporting to have been sent to 
him by a fmend. Among these are the 
following : — 

" When New England .shall trouble New Spain, 
When Jamaica shall be lady of the isles and the 

main ; 
When Spain shall be in America hid, 
And Me.xico shall prove a Madrid ; 
IVhen Africa shall no more sell out their Macks 
To vtake slaves and drudges to the A merican 

tracts ; 



IVhcn A merica shall cease to send out its treas- 
ure. 
But employ it at home in A merican pleasure ; 
IP' hen the Ne7v World shall the Old invade. 
Nor count them their lords but tlieir fellows in 
trade ; 

Then think strange things have come to light. 
Whereof but few have had a foresight." f 

Some of these words are striking, es- 
pecially when we consider their early 
date. The author of the " Religio Medi- 
ci " seems in the main to accept the 
prophecy. In a commentary on each 
verse he seeks to explain it. New 
England is " that thriving colony which 
hath so much increased in his day " ; 
its people are already "industrious," 
and when they have so far increased 
"thnt the neighboring country will not 
contain them, they will range still far- 

* Johnson, Life of Sir Thomas Browne. 
t Browne, Works, Vol. IV. pp. 332, 233. 



Bob. AtK«« 
MTar 28 06 



r 



1867.] 



Sir Thomas Browne. — Bishop Berkeley. 



ther, and be able in time to set forth 
'^ great armies, seek for new possessions, 
' or tJia/ce considerable and conjoined mi- 
' grations." The verse about Africa will 
be fulfilled " when African countries shall 
no longer make it a common trade to 
sell away their people." And this may 
come to pass " whenever they shall be 
well civilized and acquainted with arts 
and affairs sufficient to employ peojile 
in their countries." It would also come 
to pass " if they should be converted 
to Christianity, but especially into Ma- 
hometism ; for then they would nev- 
er sell those of their religion to Ic 
slaves unto Christians." The verse 
about America is expounded as fol- 
lows : — 

" That is, when America shall be bet- 
ter civilized, new policied, and divided 
between great princes, it may come to 
pass that they will no longer suffer their 
treasure of gold and silver to be sent 
out to maintain the luxury of Europe 
and other ports ; but rather employ it 
to their own advantages, in great ex- 
ploits and undertakings, magnificent 
structures, wars, or expeditions of their 
own." * 

The other verse, on the invasion of 
the Old World by the New, is thus ex- 
plained : — 

" That is, when America shall be so 
well peopled, civilized, and divided into 
kingdoms, they are like to have so little 
regard of their originals as to acknozvl- 
edge no subjection nnto them j they may 
also have a distinct commerce them- 
selves, or but independently with those 
of Europe, and may hostilely and pirat- 
ically assault them, even as the Greek 
and^^Roman colonies after a long time 
dealt vvilh their original countries." f 

That these speculations should arrest 
the attention of Dr. Johnson is some- 
tliing. They seem to have been in part 
fulfilled. An editor remarks that, " To 
judge from the course of events since 
Sir Thomas wrote, we may not unrea- 
sonably look forward to their more com- 
plete fulfilment." % 

* Browne, Works, Vol. IV. p. 236. 

t Ibid. 

t Ibid., p. 231, note. 



Bishop Berkeley. — 1726. 

It is pleasant to think that Berkeley, 
whose beautiful verses predicting the 
future of America are so often quoted, 
was so sweet and charming a character. 
Atterbury wrote of him, " So much un- 
derstanding, knowledge, innocence, and 
humility I should have thought con- 
fined to angels, had I never seen this 
gentleman." Swift said, "He is an ab- 
solute philosopher with regard to mon- 
ey, title, and power." Pope let drop 
a tribute which can never die, when he 
said, 

" To Berkeley every virtue under Heaven." 
Such a person was naturally a seer. 

He is compendiously called an Irish 
prelate and philosopher; he was born 
in Kilkenny, 1684, and died in Oxford, 
1 753. He began as a philosopher. While 
still young, he wrote his famous treatise 
on " The Principles of Human Knowl- 
edge," in which he denies the existence 
of matter, insisting that it is only an 
impression produced on the mind by 
Divine power. After travel for several 
years on the Continent, and fellowship 
with the witty and learned at home, 
among whom were 'Addison, Swift, 
Pope, Garth, and Arbuthnot, he con- 
ceived the project of educating the abo- 
rigines of America, which was set forth 
in a tract, published in 1725, entitled, 
" Scheme for Converting the Savage 
Americans to Christianity by a College 
to be erected in the Summer Islands, 
otherwise called the Isles of Bermuda." 
Persuaded by his benevolence, the min- 
isters promised twenty thousand pounds, 
and there were several private subscrip- 
tions to promote what was called by the 
king " so pious an undertaking." Berke- 
ley possessed already a deanery in Ire- 
land, with one thousand pounds a year. 
Turning away from this residence, and 
refusing to be tempted by an Eng- 
hsh mitre, oitered by the queen, he 
set sail for Rhode Island, " which lay 
nearest Bermuda," where, after a te- 
dious passage of five months, he ar- 
rived, 23d January, 1729. Here he lived 
on a farm back of Newport, having 
been, according to his own report, " at 



278 



Prophetic Voices about America. 



[September, 



great expense for land and stock." In 
familiar letters he has given his impres- 
sion of this place, famous since for fash- 
ion. " The climate," he says, " is like 
that of Italy, and not at all colder in the 
winter than I have known it everywhere 
north of Rome. This island is pleas- 
antly laid out in hills and vales and ris- 
ing grounds, hath plenty of excellent 
springs and fine rivulets and many de- 
lightful landscapes of rocks and prom- 
ontories and adjacent lands. The 
town of Newport contains about six 
thousand souls, and is the most thriv- 
ing, flourishing place in all America 
for its bigness. It is very pretty and 
pleasantly situated. I was never more 
agreeably surprised than at the first 
sight of the town and its harbor." * 
He seems to have been contented here, 
and when his companions went to Bos- 
ton stayed at home, " preferring," as he 
wrote, "quiet and solitude to the noise 
of a great town, notwithstanding all 
the sohcitations that have been used to 
draw us thither." f 

The money which he had expected, 
especially from the ministry, failed, and 
after waiting in vain expectation two 
years and a half, he returned to Eng- 
land, leaving an infant son buried in 
the yard of Trinity Church, and bestow- 
ing upon Yale College a library of eight 
hundred and eighty volumes, as well as 
his estate in Rhode Island. During his 
residence at Newport he had preached 
every Sunday, and was indefatigable in 
pastoral duties, besides meditating, if 
not composing, "The Minute Philoso- 
pher," which was published shortly af- 
ter his return. 

He had not been forgotten at home 
during his absence ; and shortly after 
his return he became Bishop of Cloyne, 
in which place he was most exemplary, 
devoting himself to his episcopal du- 
ties, to the education of his children, and 
the pleasures of composition. 

It was while occupied with his plan 
of a college, especially as a nursery for 
the Colonial churches, shortly before 
sailing for America, that the future 

* Berkeley, Works, Vol. I., Life prefixed, p. 53. 
t Ibid., p. 55. 



seemed to be revealed to him, and he 
wrote the famous poem, the only one 
to be found among his works, entitled, 
"Verses on the Prospect of Planting 
Arts and Learning in America." * The 
date may be fixed at 1726. Such a 
poem was an historic event. I give 
the first and last stanzas. 

" The Muse, disgusted at an age and clime 
Barren of every glorious theme, 
In distant lands now waits a better time. 
Producing subjects worthy fame. 

" IVesiward the course of empire takes its way ; 
The first four acts already past, 
A fifth shall close the drama with the day ; 
Time's noblest offspring is the last." 

It is difficult to exaggerate the value 
of these verses, which have been so 
often quoted as to become one of the 
commonplaces of literature and poli- 
tics. There is nothing from any oracle, 
there is very little from any proph- 
ecy, which can compare with them. 
The biographer of Berkeley, who wrote 
in the last century, was very cautious, 
when, after calling them "a beautiful 
copy of verses," he says that "another 
age will, perhaps, acknowledge the old 
conjunction of the prophetic character 
with that of the poet to have again 
taken place." f The vates of the Ro- 
mans was poet and prophet ; and such 
was Berkeley. 

The sentiment which prompted the 
prophetic verses of the good Bishop 
was widely ditfused ; or, perhaps, it 
was a natural prompting. J Of this 
an illustration is afforded in the life of 
Benjamin West. On his visit to Rome 
in 1760, the young artist encountered 
a famous improvvisatore, who, on learn- 
ing that he was an American come to 
study the fine arts in Rome, at bnce 
addressed him with the ardor of inspi- 
ration, and to the music of his guitar. 
After singing the darkness which for 
so many ages veiled America from the 
eyes of science, and also the fulness 
of time when the purposes for which 
America had been raised from the deep 
would be manifest, he hailed the youth 

* Berkeley, Works, Vol. II. p. 443- 
t Ibid., Vol. I., Life prefixed, p. 15. 
J Grahame, Hiitory of the United States, Vol. IV. 
pp. 136, 448. 



186;.] 



Turzot. 



279 



before him as an instrument of Heaven 
to raise there a taste for those arts which 
elevate man, and an assurance of refuge 
to science and knowledge, when, in the 
old age of Europe, they should have for- 
saken her shores. Then, in the spirit 
of prophecy, he sang : — 

" But all things of heavenly origin^ 
like the glorious suti, move westward j 
and truth and art have their periods of 
shining and of night. Rejoice then, O 
venerable Rome, in thy divine destiny ; 
for though darkness overshadow thy 
seats, and though thy mitred head must 
descend into the dust, thy spirit im- 
mortal and undecayed already spreads 
towards a new world.^^ * 

John Adams, in his old age, dwelling 
on the reminiscences of early life, re- 
cords that nothing was " more ancient 
in his memory than the observation 
that arts, sciences, and empire had 
travelled westward, and in conversa- 
tion it was always added, since he was 
a child, that their next leap would be 
over the Atlantic into America." With 
the assistance of an octogenarian neigh- 
bor, he recalled a couplet that had been 
repeated with rapture as long as he 
could remember : — 

" The Eastern nations sink, their glory ends, 
And empire rises where the sun descends." 

It was imagined by his neighbor that 
these lines came from some of our ear- 
ly pilgrims, — by whom they had been 
" inscribed, or rather drilled, into a rock 
on the shore of Monument Bay in our 
old Colony of Plymouth." f 

Another illustration of this same 
sentiment will be found in Burnaby's 
"Travels through the Middle Settle- 
ments of North America, in. 1759 and 
1760," a work which was first published 
in 1775. In his reflections at the close 
of his book the traveller thus re- 
marks : — 

" An idea, strange as it is visionary, 
has entered into the minds of the gen- 
erality of mankind, that empire is travel- 
ling westward : and every one is looking 
forward with eager and i?npatient ex- 
pectation to that destined motnent tuhen 

* Gait, Life of West, Vol. I. pp. n6, 117. 

t John Adams, Works, Vol. IX. pp. 597-599. 



A merica is to give the law to the rest 
of the world.'''' * 

The traveller is none the less an au- 
thority for the prevalence of this senti- 
ment because he declares it " illusory 
and fallacious," and records his convic- 
tion that " America is formed for hap- 
piness, but not for empire." Happy 
America ! What empire can compare 
with happiness ! But, to make amends 
for this admission, the jealous traveller, 
in his edition of 1796, after the adop- 
tion of our Constitution, announces that 
" the present union of American States 
will not be permanent, or last for any 
considerable length of time," and "that 
that extensive country must necessarily 
be divided into separate states and 
kingdoms." f Thus far the Union has 
stood against all shocks, foreign or 
domestic ; and the prophecy of Berke- 
ley is more than ever in the popular 
mind. 

Turcot.— 1750. 

Among the illustrious names of 
France there are few equal to that 
of Turgot. He was a philosophei 
among ministers, and a minister among 
philosophers. Malesherbes said of 
him, that he had the heart of L'Hopital 
and the head of Bacon. Such a person 
in public affairs was an epoch for his 
country and for the human race. Had 
his spirit prevailed, the bloody drama 
of the French Revolution would not 
have occurred, or it would at least 
have been postponed. I think it could 
not have occurred. He was a good 
man, who sought to carry into govern- 
ment the rules of goodness. His ca- 
reer from beginning to end was one 
continuous beneficence. Such a nature 
was essentially prophetic, for he dis- 
cerned the natural laws by which the 
future is governed. 

He was of an ancient Norman family, 
whose name suggests the^^^^ Tlior j he 
was born at Paris, 1727, and died, 1781. 
Being a younger son, he was destined 
for the Church, and commenced his 

* Biirnaby, Travels, p. 115. 
t Ibid., Preface, p. 21. 



28o 



PropJietic Voices about America. 



[September 



studies as an ecclesiastic at the an- 
cient Sorbonne. Before registering an 
irrevocable vow, he announced his re- 
pugnance to the profession, and turned 
aside to other pursuits. Law, litera- 
ture, science, humanity, government, 
now engaged his attention. He as- 
sociated himself with the writers of 
the Encyclopaedia, and became one of 
its contributors. In other writings 
he vindicated especially the virtue of 
toleration. Not merely a theorist, he 
soon arrived at the high post of in- 
tendant of Limousin, where he devel- 
oped a remarkable talent for adminis- 
tration, and a sympathy with the peo- 
ple. He introduced the potato into 
that province. But he continued to 
employ his pen, especially on questions 
of political economy, which he treated 
as a master. On the accession of Louis 
XVI. he was called to the cabinet as 
Minister of the Marine, and shortly 
afterwards he gave up this place to be 
the head of the finances. Here he be- 
gan a system of rigid economy, founded 
on a curtailment of expenses and an 
enlargement of resources. The latter 
was obtained especially by a removal 
of disabilities from trade, whether at 
home or abroad, and the substitution 
of a single tax on land for a complex 
multiplicity of taxes. The enemies of 
progress were too strong at that time, 
and the king dismissed the reformer. 
Good men in France became anxious 
for the future ; Voltaire, in his distant 
retreat, gave a shriek of despair, and 
addressed to Turgot some remarkable 
verses entitled Epitre d tut Homme. 
Worse still, the good edicts of the min- 
ister were rescinded, and society was 
13ut back. 

The discarded minister gave himself 
to science, literature, and friendship. 
He welcomed Franklin to France and 
to immortality in a Latin verse of mar- 
vellous felicity. He was already the 
companion of the liberal spirits who 
were doing so much for knowledge 
and for reform. By writing and by 
conversation he exercised a constant 
influence. His "ideas" seem to illu- 
mine the time. We may be content 



to follow him in saying, " The glory of 
arms cannot compare with the happi- 
ness of living in peace." He antici- 
pated our definition of a republic, when 
he said " it was formed uj^on the 
equality of all the citizens" — good 
words, not yet practically verified in 
all our States. Such a government 
he, living under a monarchy, bravely 
pronounced the best of all ; but he 
added that he "had never known a 
constitution truly republican." This 
was in 1778. With similar plainness 
he announced that " the destruction of 
the Ottoman empire would be a real 
good for all the nations of Europe," 
and — he added still further — for hu- 
manity also, because it would involve 
the abolition of negro slavery, and be- 
cause to st!:ip "our oppressors is not 
to attack, but to vindicate, the com- 
mon rights of humanity." With such 
thoughts and a.spirations, the prophet 
died. 

But I have no purpose of writing a 
biography, or even a character. All 
that I intend is an introduction to 
Turgot's prophetic words relating to 
America. When only twenty-three 
years of age, while still an ecclesiastic 
at the Sorbonne, the future minister 
delivered a discourse on the Progress 
of the Human Mind, in which, 'after de- 
scribing the commercial triumphs of 
the ancient Phoenicians, covering the 
coasts of Greece and Asia with their 
colonies, he lets drop these remarkable 
words : — 

"Les colonies sont comme des fruits 
qui ne tiennent ^ I'arbre que jusqu'k 
leur maturite ; devenues sufifisantes ^ 
elles-mcmes, elles firent ce que fitdepuis 
Carthage, — ce qjwfcra unjour PAme- 
riquc.'''' * 

" Colonies are like fruits, which hold 
to the tree only until their maturity ; 
when sufficient for themselves, they did 
that which Carthage afterwards did, — 
that which sotne day America will do.''^ 

On this most suggestive declaration, 

* Turcot, O'.uvres, Tome II. p. 66. See also 
Condorcet, CKimrcs, Tome IV., \'ic de Tin-got; 
Louis Blanc, Hisioire de la Rivolution Fra?igazse, 
Tome I. pp. 527 - S33. 



1867.] 



John Adams. 



281 



Dupont de Nemours, the editor of Tar- 
get's works, published in 1808, remarks 
in a note as follows : — 

"It was in 1750 that M. Turgot, 
being then only twenty -three years 
old, and devoted in a seminary to the 
study of theology, divined, foresaw the 
revolution which has formed the Unit- 
ed States, — which has detached them 
from the European power apparently the 
most capable of retaining its colonies 
under its domination." 

At the time Turgot wrote, Canada 
was a French possession ; but his words 
are as applicable to this colony as to the 
United States. When will this fruit be 
ripe .'' 

John Adams. — 1755, 1776, 17S0, 1785, 
1787. 

Next in time among the prophets 
was John Adams, who has left on 
record at different dates several pre- 
dictions which show a second-sight of 
no common order. Of his life I need 
say nothing, except that he was born 
19th October, 1735, and died 4th July,- 
1826. I mention the predictions in the 
order of their utterance. 

I. While teaching a school at Worces- 
ter, and when under twenty years of age, 
he wrote a letter to one of his youthful 
companions, bearing date \ith October, 
1755, which is a marvel of foresight. 
Fifty-two years afterwards, when al- 
ready much of its prophecy had been 
fulfilled, the original was returned to its 
author by the son of his early comrade 
and correspondent, Nathan Webb, who 
was at the time dead. In this letter, 
after remarking gravely on the rise and 
fall of nations, with illustrations from 
Carthage and Rome, he proceeds : — 

" England began to increase in power 
and magnificence, and is now the great- 
est nation of the globe. Soon after the 
Reformation, a few people came over 
into this New World for conscience' 
sake. Perhaps this apparently trivial 
incident may transfer the great seat of 
empire to America. It looks likely to 
me J for if we can remove the turbulent 
Gallics, our people, according to the 



exactest computations, will, in another 
century, become more numerous than 
England itself Should this be the 
case, since we have, I may say, all the 
naval stores of the nations in our hands, 
it will be easy to obtain the mastery of 
the seas ; and then the united force of 
all Europe will not be able to subdue 
us. The only way to keep us from set- 
ting up for ourselves is to disunite us. 
Divide et iinpera. Keep us in distinct 
colonies, and then, some great men in 
each colony desiring the monarchy of 
the whole, they will destroy each others' 
influence, and keep the country in eqiii- 
librio.''^ * 

On this letter his son, John Quincy 
Adams, remarks : — 

" Had the political part of it been 
written by the minister of state of a 
European monarchy, at the close of a 
long life spent in the government of 
nations, it would have been pronounced 
worthy of the united wisdom of a Bur- 
leigh, a Sully, or an Oxenstiern 

/;/ one bold outline he has exhibited by 
anticipation a long succession of pro- 
phetic history, thefulfihncnt of which is 
barely yet in progress, rcspondi?ig ex- 
actly hitherto to his foresight, but the 
full accomplishment of which is re- 
served for the development of after 
ages. The extinction of the power 
of France in America, the union of the 
British North American Colonies, the 
achievement of their independence, and 
the establishment of their ascendency 
in the community of civilized nations 
by the means of their naval power, are 
all foreshadowed in this letter, with a 
clearness of perception and a distinct- 
ness of delineation which time has 
done little more than to convert into 
historical fact."t 

2. The Declaration of Independence 
bears date 4th July, 1776, for on that 
day it was signed ; but the vote which 
determined it was on the 2d July. On 
the id July, John Adams, in a letter 
to his wife, wrote as follows : — 

" Yesterday the greatest question 

* John Adams, Works, Vol. I. p. 23. See also 
Vol. IX. pp. 591, 592- 
t Ibid., Vol. I. pp. 24, 25. 



252 



Prophetic Voices about America. 



[September, 



was decided which ever was debated 
in America, and a greater, perhaps, 
never was nor will be decided among 
men I am surprised-at the sud- 
denness as well as greatness of this 
revolution. Britain has been filled 
with folly, and America with wisdom. 
At least this is my judgment. Time 
must determine. // is the will of 
Heaven thai the two countries should 

be sundered forever Tlie day is 

past. The second day of July, 1776, 
will be the most memorable epocha in 
the history of America. / ant apt to 
believe that it will be celebrated by suc- 
ceeding generations as the great anni- 
-versary festival. It ought to be com- 
memorated, as the day of deliverance, 
by solemn acts of devotion to God Al- 
mighty. It ought to be solemnized 
with pomp and parade, with shows, 
games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and 
illuminations, from one end of this 
continent to the other, from this time 
forward, forevermore. You will think 
me transported with enthusiasm, but I 
am not. I am well aware of the toil 
and blood and treasure that it will cost 
us to maintain this Declaration, and 
support and defend these States. Yet, 
through all the gloom, I can see the ray 
of ravishing light and glory ; and that 
posterity will triuj/iph in that day^s 
transaction, even although we should 
rue it, which I trust in God we shall 
not." * 

Here is a comprehensive prophecy, 
first, that the two countries would be 
separated forever ; secondly, that the 
anniversary of Independence would be 
celebrated as a great annual festival ; 
and, thirdly, that posterity would tri- 
umph in this transaction, where, through 
all the gloom, shone rays of ravishing 
light and glory ; all of which has been 
fulfilled to the letter. Recent events 
give to the Declaration additional im- 
portance. For a long time its great 
promises that all men are equal, and 
that rightful government stands only 
on the consent of the governed, were 
disowned by our country. Now that at 
last they are beginning to prevail, there 

• John Adams, Works, Vol. 1. pp. 230, 232. 



is increased reason to celebrate the day 
on which the mighty Declaration was 
made, and new occasion for triumph in 
the rays of ravishing light and glory. 

3. Here is another prophetic passage 
in a letter dated at Paris, lyh July, 
1780, and addressed to the Count de 
Vergennes of France, pleading the 
cause of the colonists : — 

"The United States of America are 
a great and powerful people, whatever 
European statesmen may think of them. 
If we take into our estimate the num- 
bers and the character of her people, the 
extent, variety, and fertility of her soil, 
her commerce, and her skill and ma- 
terials for ship-building, and her sea- 
men, excepting France, Spain, England, 
Germany, and Russia, there is not a 
state in Europe so powerful. Breaking 
off such a nation as this from the Eng- 
lish so suddenly, and uniting it so 
closely with France, is one of the most 
extraordinary events that ever hap- 
pened among mankind." * 

Perhaps this may be considered a 
statement rather than a prophecy ; but 
it illustrates the prophetic character of 
the writer. 

4. In an official letter to the Presi- 
dent of Congress, dated at A nistcrdani, 
^th September, 1780, the same writer, 
while proposing an American Academy 
for refining, improving, and ascertain- 
ing the English language, thus predicts 
the extension of this language : — 

" English is destined to be in the next 
and succeeding centuries more generally 
the language of the world than Latin 
was in the last or Freitch is i?i the pres- 
ent age. The reason of this is obvious, 
— because the increasing population in 
America, and their universal connec- 
tion and correspondence with all na- 
tions, will, aided by the influence of 
England in the world, whether great 
or small, force their language into gen- 
eral use, in spite of all the obstacles 
that may be thrown in their way, if any 
such there should be." f 

In another letter of an unofficial char- 
acter, dated at Amsterdam, 22,d Septefn- 

* Ibid., Vol. VII. p. 227. 
t Ibid., p. 250. 



186;.] 



G a Hani. 



283 



ber, 1780, he thus repeats his proph- 
ecy : — 

"You must know I have undertaken 
to prophesy that English -will be the 
most respectable language in the world, 
and the most universally read and spo- 
ken in the next century, if not before the 
close of this. American population will 
in the next age produce a greater num- 
ber of persons who will speak English 
than any other language, and these per- 
sons will have more general acquaint- 
ance and conversation with all other 
nations than any other people."* 

This prophecy is already accom- 
plished. Of all the European langua- 
ges, EngHsh is most extensively spo- 
ken. Through England and the Unit- 
ed States it has become the language 
of commerce, which, sooner or later, 
must embrace the globe. The German 
philologist, Grimm, has followed our 
American prophet in saying that it 
" seems chosen, like its people, to rule 
in future times in a still greater degree 
in all the corners of the earth." f 

5. There is another prophecy, at 
once definite and broad, which proceed- 
ed from the same eminent quarter. In 
a letter dated London, ijth October, 
1785, and addressed to John Jay, who 
was at the time Secretary for Foreign 
Affairs under the Confederation, John 
Adams reveals his conviction of the 
importance of France to us, "while 
England held a province in America " ; % 
and then, in another letter, dated 21st 
October, 17S5, reports the saying of 
people about him, ^'- that Canada and 
Nova Scotia must soon be ours; there 
must be war for it ; they know how it 
will end, but the sooner the better. 
This done, we shall be forever at 
peace ; till then, never." § These inti- 
mations foreshadow the prophecy which 
will be found in the Preface to his 
" Defence of the American Constitu- 
tions," written in London, while he 
was Minister there, and dated at Gros- 
venor Square, \st January, 1787 : — 

* John Adams, Works, Vol. IX. p. 510. 
t Keith Johnston, Physical Atlas, p. 114. 
\ John Adams, Works, Vol. VIII. p. 322. 
§ Ibid. p. 33. 



" The United States of America have 
exhibited, perhaps, the first example of 
governments erected on the simple 

principles of nature Thirteen 

governments thus founded on the nat- 
ural authority of the people alone, with- 
out a pretence of miracle or mystery, 
and which are destined to spread over 
the northern part of that whole quarter 
of the globe, are a great point gained in 
favor of the rights of mankind. The 
experiment is made, and has completely 
succeeded." * 

Here is foretold nothing less than 
that our system of government is to 
embrace the whole continent of North 
America. 

Galiani. — 1776, 1778. 

Among the most brilliant persons in 
this list is the Abbe Galiani, a Neapol- 
itan, who was born in 1728, and died at 
Naples in 1787. Although Italian by 
birth, yet by the accident of official res- 
idence he became for a while domesti- 
cated in France, wrote the French lan- 
guage, and now enjoys a French repu- 
tation. His writings in French and his 
letters have the wit and ease of Voltaire. 

Galiani was a genius. Whatever he 
touched shone at once with his bright- 
ness, in which there was originality as 
well as knowledge. He was a finished 
scholar, and very successful in lapidary 
verses. Early in life, while in Italy, he 
wrote a grave essay on Money, which 
contrasted with another of rare humor 
suggested by the death of the public 
executioner. Other essays followed, 
and then came the favor of that con- 
genial pontiff, Benedict XIV. In 1760 
he found himself at Paris, as Secretary 
of the Neapolitan Embassy. Here he 
mingled with the courtiers officially, ac- 
cording to the duties of his position, 
but he fraternized with the liberal and 
sometimes audacious spirits who ex- 
ercised such an influence over socie- 
ty and literature. He was soon recog- 
nized as one of them, and as inferior to 
none. His petty stature was forgotten, 
when he conversed with inexhaustible 

* John Adams, Works, Vol, IV. p. 293. 



284 



Prophetic Voices about Ameiica. [September, 



faculties of all kinds, so that he seemed 
an Encyclopaedia, Harlequin, and Ma- 
chiavelli all in one. The atheists at the 
Thursday dinner of D'Hplbach were 
confounded, while he enforced the ex- 
istence of God. Into the questions of 
political economy which occupied at- 
tention at the time he entered with a 
pen which seemed borrowed from the 
French Academy. His Dialogues sicr 
le Commerce des Bles had the success 
of a romance ; ladies carried this book 
on corn in their work-baskets. Re- 
turning to Naples, he continued to live 
in Paris through his correspondence, 
especially with Madame d'Epinay, the 
Baron d'Holbach, Diderot, and Grimm.* 

Among his later works, after his re- 
turn to Naples, was a solid volume — 
not to be forgotten in the History of 
International Law — on the "Rights of 
Neutrals," where a difficult subject is 
treated with such mastery that, half 
a century later, D'Hautefeuille, in his 
elaborate treatise, copies from it at 
length. Galiani was the predecessor 
of this French writer in the extreme 
assertion of neutral rights. Other 
works were left at his death in manu- 
script, some grave and some humor- 
ous ; also letters without number. The 
letters he had preserved from Italian 
savans filled eight large volumes ; those 
from savans, ministers, and sovereigns 
abroad filled fourteen. His Parisian 
correspondence did not see the light 
till 181 8, although some of the letters 
may be found in the contemporary cor- 
respondence of Grimm. 

In his Parisian letters, which are ad- 
dressed chiefly to that clever individu- 
ality, Madame d'Epinay, the Neapoli- 
tan Abbe shows not only the brilliancy 
and nimbleness of his talent, but the 
universality of his knowledge and the 
boldness of his speculations. Here are 
a few words from a letter dated at Na- 
ples, 1 2th October, 1776, in which he 
brings forward the idea of "races," so 
important in our day, with an illustra- 
tion from Russia : — 

* Biographic Universeile of Michaud ; also of 
Didot ; Louis Blanc, Histoire de la Revolution 
Franfaise, Tome I. pp. 390, 545 - 551. 



"All depends on races. The first, 
the most noble of races, comes natural- 
ly from the North of Asia. The Rus- 
sians are the nearest to it, and this is 
the reason why they have made more 
progress in fifty years than can be got 
out of the Portuguese in five hun- 
dred."* 

Belonging to the Latin race, Galiani 
was entitled to speak thus freely. 

1. In another letter to Madame 
d'Epinay, dated at Naples, iZth May, 
1776, he had already foretold the suc- 
cess of our Revolution. Few prophets 
have been more explicit than he was in 
the following passage : — 

" Livy said of his age, which so 
much resembled ours, 'Ad haec tem- 
pora ventum est quibus, nee vitia nos- 
tra, nee remedia pati possumus,' — ' We 
are in an age where the remedies hurt 
as much as the vices.' Do you knojv 
the reality ? The epoch has come of 
tlie total fall of Europe, and of trans- 
inigratio7i into Ainerica. All here turns 
into rottenness, — religion, laws, arts, 
sciences, — and all hastens to renew it- 
self in America. This is not a jest ; nor 
is it an idea drawn from the English 
quarrels ; I have said it, announced it, 
preached it, for more than twenty years, 
and I have constantly seen my prophe- 
cies come to pass. Therefore, do not 
buy your house in the Chaiissee d An- 
ting you mnst buy it in Philadelphia. 
My trouble is that there are no abbeys 
In America."! 

This letter was written some months 
before the Declaration of Independence 
was known in Europe. 

2. In another letter, dated at A'a- 
ples, Tth February, 1778, the Abbd al- 
ludes to the "quantities" of English 
men and women who have come to Na- 
ples " for shelter from the American 
tempest," and adds, " Meanwhile the 
Washingtons and Hancocks will be fa- 
tal to them."t In still another, dated 
at Naples, 25 July, 1778, he renews 

* Galiani, Correspondence, Tome II. p. 221. 
See also Grimm, Correspondence, Tome IX. p. 
282. 

t Galiani, Tome II. p. 203 ; Grimm, Tome IX. 
p. 285. 

} Galiani, Tome II. p. 275. 



186;.] 



Adam Smith. — Governor Potvnall. 



285 



his prophecies in language still more 
explicit: — 

" You will at this time have decided 
the greatest revolution of the globe ; 
namely, if it is America "which is to 
reign over Europe, or if it is Europe 
which is to continue to reign over 
America. I will wager in favor of 
America, for the reason merely physi- 
cal, that for five thousand years genius 
has turned opposite to the diurnal mo- 
tion, and travelled from the East to the 
West." * 

Here again is the idea of Berkeley 
which has been so captivating. 



Adam Smith. 



[776. 



In contrast with the witty Italian is 
the illustrious philosopher and writer 
of Scotland, Adam Smith, who was 
born 5th June, 1723, and died 17th July, 
1790. His fame is so commanding that 
any details of his life or works would 
be out of place on this occasion. He 
was a thinker and an inventor, through 
\i\-\om mankind was advanced in knowl- 
edge. 

I say nothing of his " Theory of 
Moral Sentiments," which constitutes 
an important contribution to the science 
of ethics, but come at once to his great 
work of political economy, entitled "In- 
quiry into the Nature and Sources of 
the Wealth of Nations," which first ap- 
peared in 1776. Its publication marks an 
epoch which is described by Mr. Buckle 
when he says: "Adam Smith contrib- 
uted more, by the publication of this sin- 
gle work, toward the happiness of man, 
than has been effected by the united 
abihties of all the statesmen and legis- 
lators of whom history has preserved 
an authentic account." The work is 
full of prophetic knowledge, and espe- 
cially with regard to the British colo- 
nies. Writing while the debate with 
the mother country was still pending, 
Adam Smith urged that they should 
be admitted to Parliamentary repre- 
sentation in proportion to taxation, so 
that their representation would enlarge 
with their growing resources ; and here 

* Galiani, Tome II. p. 275. 



he predicts nothing less than the trans- 
fer of empire. 

" The distance of America from the 
seat of government, the natives of that 
country might flatter themselves, with 
some appearance of reason too, would 
not be of very long continuance. Such 
has hitherto been the rapid progress of 
that country in wealth, population, and 
improvement, that, in the course of lit- 
tle more than a century, perhaps, the 
produce of America might exceed that 
of British taxation. The seat of the 
empire would then naticrally remove 
itself to that part of the empire which 
contributed most to the getteral defence 
and support of the whole. ''^ * 

In these tranquil words of assured 
science this great author carries the 
seat of government across the Atlan- 
tic. 

Governor Pownall. — 1777, 1780, 
1785. 

Among the best friends of our coun- 
try abroad during the trials of the Rev- 
olution was Thomas Pownall, called by 
one biographer " a learned antiquary 
and politician," and by another " an 
English statesman and author." Lat- 
terly he has so far dropped out of sight, 
that there are few who recognize in him 
either of these characters. He was 
born, 1722, and died at Bath, 1805. 
During this long period he held sever- 
al offices. As early as 1745 he became 
secretary to the Commission for Trade 
and Plantations. In 1753 he crossed 
the ocean. In 1755, as Commissioner for 
Massachusetts Bay, he negotiated with 
New York, New Jersey, and Pennsyl- 
vania, in union with New England, the 
confederated expedition against Crown 
Point. He was afterwards Governor 
of Massachusetts Bay, New Jersey, 
and South Carolina, successively. Re- 
turning to England, he was, in 1761, 
Comptroller-General of the army in Ger- 
many, with the military rank of Colonel. 
He sat in three successive Parliaments 
until 1780, when he passed into private 

* Smith, Wealth of Nations, Book IV. cap. 7, 
part 3. 



286 



Prophetic Voices about America. 



[September, 



life. Hildreth gives a glimpse at his 
personal character, when, admitting 
his frank manners and Hberal politics, 
he describes his " habit^ as rather 
freer than suited the New England 
standard." * 

Pownall stands forth conspicuous 
for his championship of our national 
independence, and especially for his 
foresight with regard to our national 
future. In both these respects his 
writings are unique. Other English- 
men were in favor of our independence, 
and saw our future also ; but I doubt 
if any one can be named who was his 
equal in strenuous action, or in minute- 
ness of foresight. While the war was 
still proceeding, as early as 1780, he 
openly announced, not only that inde- 
pendence was inevitable, but that the 
new nation, " founded in nature and 
built up in truth," would continually 
expand ; that its population would in- 
crease and multiply ; that a civilizing 
activity beyond what Europe could 
ever know would animate it ; and that 
its commercial and naval power would 
be found in every quarter of the globe. 
All this he set forth at length with 
argument and illustration, and he called 
his prophetic words " the stating of the 
simple fact, so litde understood in the 
Old World." Treated at first as " un- 
intelligible speculation " and as " un- 
fashionable," the truth he announced 
was neglected where it was not reject- 
ed, but generally rejected as inadmissi- 
ble, and the author, according to his 
own language, "was called by the 
wise men of the British Cabinet a 
Wild Man, unfit to be employed." 
But these writings are a better title 
now than any office. In manner they 
are diffuse and pedantic ; but they hard- 
ly deserve the cold judgment of John 
Adams, who in his old age said of 
them, that "a reader who has patience 
to search for good sense in an uncouth 
and disgusting style will find in those 
writings proofs of a thinking mind." f 

He seems to have written a good 

* Hildreth, History of the United States, Vol. II. 
p. 476. 

t John Adams, Works, Vol. X. p. 241. 



deal. But the works which will be re- 
membered the longest are not even 
mentioned by several of his biogra- 
phers. Rose, in his Biographical Dic- 
tionary, records works bj him, entitled 
Antiquities of Ancient Greece ; Ro- 
man Antiquities dug up at Bath ; Ob- 
servations on the Currents of the 
Ocean; Intellectual Physics; and also 
contributions \q \\\^ Archaologia. Gor- 
ton in his Biographical Dictionary adds 
some other titles to this list. But nei- 
ther mentions his works on America. 
This is another instance where the 
stone rejected by the builders becomes 
the head of the corner. 

At an early date Pownall compre- 
hended the position of our country, 
geographically. He saw the wonder- 
ful means, of internal communication 
supplied by its inland waters, and 
also the opportunities of external com- 
merce supplied by the Atlantic Ocean. 
On the first he dwells, in a memorial 
drawn up in 1756 for the Duke of Cum- 
berland.* Nobody in our own day, 
after the experience of more than a 
century, has portrayed more vividly the 
two masses of waters, — one composed 
of the great lakes and their dependen- 
cies, and the other of the Mississippi 
and its tributaries. The great lakes are 
described as " a wilderness of waters 
spreading over the country by an in- 
finite number and variety of branch- 
ings, bays, and straits." The Missis- 
sippi, with its eastern branch, called 
the Ohio, is described as having, " so 
far as we know, but two falls, — one at 
a place called, by the French, St. An- 
toine, high up on the west or main 
branch " ; and all its waters " run to the 
ocean with a still, easy, and gentle 
current." The picture is completed by 
exhibiting the two masses of water in 
combination: — 

"The waters of each respective mass 
— not only the lesser streams, but 
the main general body of each going 
through this continent in every course 
and direction — have by their approach 
to each other, by their communication 

* Pownall, Administration of the Colonies, Appen- 
dix, p. 7. 



1867.] 



Governor Powjiall. 



to every quarter and in every direction, 
an alliance and unity, and form one 
ma.^s, or one whole."* 

Again, depicting the intercommuni- 
cation among the several waters of the 
continent, and how " the watery element 
claims and holds dominion over this 
extent of land," he insists that all shall 
see these two mighty masses in their 
central throne, declaring that " the great 
lakes which lie upon its bosom on one 
hand, and the great river Mississippi 
and the multitude of waters which run 
into it, form there a communication, — 
an alliance or dominion of the watery 
element, that commands throughout the 
whole ; that these great lakes appear to 
be the throne, the centre of a dominion, 
whose influence, by an infinite number 
of rivers, creeks, and streams, extends 
itself through all and every part of the 
continent, supported by the communi- 
cation of, and alliance with, the waters 
of the Mississippi."! 

If these means of internal commerce 
were vast, those afforded by the Atlan- 
tic Ocean were not less extensive. The 
latter were developed in the volume 
entitled " The Administration of the 
Colonies," the fourth edition of which, 
published in 1768, is now before me. 
This was after the differences between 
the Colonies and the mother country 
had begun, but before the idea of inde- 
pendence had shown itself. Pownall 
insisted that the Colonies ought to be 
considered as parts of the realm, entitled 
to representation in Parliament. This 
was a constitutional unity. But he por- 
trayed a commercial unity also, which 
he represented in attractive forms. The 
British isles, and the British posses- 
sions in the Atlantic and in America, 
were, according to him, "one grand 
marine dominion," and ought, there- 
fore, by policy, to be united into one 
empire, with one centre. On this he 
dwells at length, and the picture is pre- 
sented repeatedly.J It was incident to 
the crisis produced in the world by the 
predominance of the commercial spirit 

* Pownall, Administration of the Colonies, Ap- 
pendix, p. 6. 
t Ibid., p. 9. 
} Pownall, Colonies, pp. 9, 10, 164. 



287 



which already began to rule the powers 
of Europe. It was the duty of Eng- 
land to place herself at the head of this 
great movement. 

" As the rising of this crisis forms 
precisely the object on which govern- 
ment should be employed, so the 
taking leading measures towards the 
forming all those Atlantic and Amer- 
ican possessions into one empire, of 
which Great Britain should be the com- 
mercial and political centre, is X\\^ pre- 
cise duty of government at this crisis." 

This was his desire. But he saw 
clearly the resources as well as the 
rights of the Colonies, and was satisfied 
that, if power were not consolidated un- 
der the constitutional auspices of Eng- 
land, it would be transferred to the 
other side of the Atlantic. Here his 
words are prophetic : — 

" The whole train of events, the 
whole course of business, must perpet- 
ually bring forward into practice, and 
necessarily in the end into establish- 
ment, either an American or a British 
union. There is no other alternative." 

The necessity for union is enforced 
in a manner which foreshadows our 
• national Union : — 

" The Colonial Legislature does not 
answer all purposes ; is incompetent 
and inadequate to many purposes. 
Something more is necessary, — either 
a common Pinion among themselves, or 
a common union of subordination un- 
der the one general legislature of the 
state." * 

Then, again, in another place of the 
same work, after representing the dec- 
larations of power over the Colonies as 
little better than mockery, he prophe- 
sies again : — 

" Such is the actual state of the 
really existing system of our dominions, 
that neither the power of government 
over these various parts can long con- 
tinue tender the present mode of admin- 
istration, nor the great interests of com- 
merce extended throughout the whole 
long subsist under the present system of 
the laws of trade." \ 

* Pownall, Administration of the Colonies, p. 165. 
^ • t Ibid., p. 164. 



Prophetic Voices about America. 



[September, 



Recent events may give present inter- 
est to his views, in tiiis same work, on 
the nature and necessity of a paper cur- 
ency, where he follows Franklin. The 
principal points of his plail were, that 
bills of credit, to a certain amount, 
should be printed in England for the 
use of the Colonies ; that a loan-office 
should be estabhshed in each Colony to 
issue bills, take securities, and receive 
the payment ; that the bills should be 
issued for ten years, bearing interest at 
five per cent, — one tenth part of the 
sum borrowed to be paid annually, with 
interest ; and that they should be a 
legal tender. 

When the differences had flamed 
forth in war, then the prophet became 
more earnest. His utterances deserve 
to be rescued from oblivion. He was 
open, and almost defiant. As early as 
-zd December, 1777, some months before 
our treaty with France, he declared, 
from his place in Parliament, "that the 
sovereignty of this country over Amer- 
ica is abolished and gone forever " ; 
" that they are determined at all events 
to be independent, and will be so "y and 
"that all the treaty this country can 
ever expect with America is federal, 
and that, probably, only commercial." 
In this spirit he said to the House: — 
" Until you shall be convinced that 
you are no longer sovereigns over 
America, but that the United States 
are an independent, sovereign people, 
— until you are prepared to treat with 
them as such, — it is of no consequence 
at all what schemes or plans of concil- 
iation this side of the House or that 
may adopt." * 

The position taken in Parliament he 
maintained by writings, and here he 
depicted the great destinies of our 
country. He began with a work enti- 
tled " A Memorial to the Sovereigns of 
Europe," which was published early in 
1780, and was afterwards, through the 
influence of John Adams, while at the 
Hague, abridged and translated into 
French. In this remarkable produc- 
tion independence was the least that he 

- Parhameiitary History, Vol. XIX. pp. 527, 528. 
See also p. 1157. 



claimed for us. Thus he foretells our 
future : — 

" North America is become a new 
primary planet in the system of the 
world, which, while it takes its own 
course, must have effect on the orbit of 
every other planet, and shift the com- 
mon centre of gravity of the whole sys- 
tem of the European world. North 
America is de facto an independent 
power, which has taken its equal sta- 
tion with other powers, and must be 

so de jiwe The independence of 

America is fixed as fate. She is mis- 
tress of her own future, knows that 
she is so, and will actuate that power 
which she feels she hath, so as to estab- 
lish her own system and to change the 
system of Etirope." * 

Not only is the new power to take an 
independerlt place, but it is " to change 
the system of Europe." For all this 
its people are amply prepared. " Stand- 
ing on that high ground of improve- 
ment up to which the most enlightened 
parts of Europe have advanced, like 
eaglets, they commence the first efforts 
of their pinions from a towering advan- 
tage." f Then again, giving expression 
to this same conviction in another form, 
he says : — 

" North America has advanced, and 
is every day advancing, to growth of 
state, with a steady and continually ac- 
celerating motion, of which there has 
never yet been any example in Eu- 
rope." J "It is a vitality, liable to many 
disorders, many dangerous diseases ; 
but it is young and strong, and will 
struggle, by the vigor of internal healing 
principles of life, against those evils, 
and surmount them. Its strength will 
grow with its years." § 

He then dwells in detail on "the 
progressive population " here ; on our 
advantage in being " on the other side 
of the globe, where there is no enemy " ; 
on the products of the soil, among 
which is "bread-corn to a degree that 
has wrought it to a staple export for 

* Pownall, Memorial to the Sovereigns of Europe, 
PP- 4. 5- 

t Ibid., p. 43. 
I Ibid., p. 56. 
§ Ibid., p. 69. 



186;.] 



Governor Pownall. 



289 



the supply of the Old World " ; on the 
fisheries, which he calls " mines of 
more solid riches than all the silver of 
Potosi " ; on the inventive spirit of the 
people ; and on their commercial activ- 
ity. Of such a people it is easy to pre- 
dict great things ; and our prophet an- 
nounces, — 

1. That the new state will be "an 
active naval power," exercising a pecu- 
liar influence on commerce, and, through 
commerce, on the political system of the 
Old World, — becoming the arbitress of 
commerce, and, perhaps, the mediatrix 
of peace.* 

2. That ship -building and the sci- 
ence of navigation have made such 
progress in America, that her people 
will be able to build and navigate cheap- 
er than any country in Europe, even 
Holland, with all her economy, f 

3. That the peculiar articles to be 
had from America only, and so much 
sought in Europe, must give Ameri- 
cans a preference in those markets. :j: 

4. That a people " whose empire 
stands singly predominant on a great 
continent " can hardly " suffer in their 
borders such a monopoly as the Euro- 
pean Hudson Bay Company " ; that it 
cannot be stopped by Cape Horn or 
the Cape of Good Hope ; that before 
long they will be found "trading in the 
South Sea and in China"; and that the 
Dutch " will hear of them in the Spice 
Islands." § 

5. That by constant intercommunion 
of business and correspondence, and 
by increased knowledge with regard to 
the ocean, "America will seem every 
day to approach nearer and nearer to 
Europe " ; that the old alarm at the sea 
will subside, and "a thousand attrac- 
tive motives will become the irresisti- 
ble cause of an altnost general emi- 
gration to the Neiv World'''' ; and that 
"many of the most useful, enterprising 
spirits, and much of the active property, 
will go there also." || 

* Pownall, Memorial to the Sovereigns of Europe, 
pp. 74. 77- 
t Ibid., p. 82. 
X Ibid., p. 83. 
§ Ibid., p. 85. 
II Ibid., p. 87. 
VOL. XX. — NO. 119. 19 



6. That " North America will be- 
come a free port to all the nations of 
the world indiscriminately, and will ex- 
pect, insist on, and demand, in fair reci- 
procity, a free market in all those na- 
tions with whom she trades " ; and 
that, adhering to this principle, she 
must be, in the course of time, the 
chief carrier of tlie commerce of the 
whole world." * 

7. That America must avoid compli- 
cation with European politics, or "the 
entanglement of alliances," having no 
connections with Europe other than 
commercial;! — all of which at a later 
day was put forth by Washington in 
his Farewell Address, when he said, 
" The great rule of conduct for us, in 
regard to foreign nations, is, in extend- 
ing our commercial relations, to have 
with them as little political concern as 
possible." 

8. That similar modes of living and 
thinking, the same manners and same 
fashions, the same language and old 
habits of national love, impressed on 
the heart and not yet effaced, the very 
indentings of the fracture where North 
America is broken off from England, 
all conspire naturally to a rejuncture by 
alliance.% 

9. That the sovereigns of Europe, 
" who have despised the unfashioned, 
awkward youth of America," and have 
neglected to interweave their interests 
with the rising States, when they find 
the system of the new empire not only 
obstructing, but superseding, the old 
system of Europe, and crossing all their 
settled maxims, will call upon their 
ministers and wise men, " Come, curse 
me this people, for they are too mighty 
for me."§ 

This appeal was followed by two oth- 
er memorials, "drawn up solely for the 
king's use, and designed solely for his 
eye," dated at Richtnond, fanuary, 
1782, in which the author most persua- 
sively pleads with the king to treat with 
the Colonies on the footing of indepen- 

* Pownall, Memorial to the Sovereigns of Europe, 
pp. 80, 97. 
t Ibid,, p. 78. 
X Ibid., p. 93. 
§ Ibid., p. 91. 



290 



Prophetic Voices about America. 



[September, 



dence, and with this view to institute a 
preliminary negotiation "as with free 
states de facto under a truce." On the 
signature of the treaty of peace, he 
wrote a private letter to Frankhn, dated 
at RichfHOftd, iZth February, 1783, in 
which he testifies again to the magni- 
tude of the event, as follows : — 

"My old Friend, — I write this to 
congratulate you on the establishment 
of your country as a free and sovereign 
power, taking its equal station amongst 
the powers of the world. I congratu- 
late you, in particular, as chosen by 
Providence to be a principal instrument 
in this great Revolution, — « Revolu- 
tion that has stranger /narks of Divine 
interposition, superseding the ordinary 
course of human affairs, than any other 
event which this world has experi- 
enced.^'' 

He closes this letter by saying that 
he thought of making a tour of Ameri- 
ca, adding that, " if there ever was an 
object worth travelling to see, and wor- 
thy of the contemplation of a philoso- 
pher, it is that in which he may see the 
beginning of a great empire at its foun- 
dation." * He communicated this pur- 
pose also to John Adams, who an- 
swered him, that " he would be re- 
ceived respectfully in every part of 
America, — that he had always been 
considered friendly to America, — and 
that his writings had been useful to 
our cause." f 

Then came another work, first pub- 
lished in 1783, entided, " A Memorial 
addressed to the Sovereigns of America, 
by Governor Pownall," of which he gave 
the mistaken judgment to a private 
friend, that it was " the best thing he 
ever wrote." Here for the first time 
American citizens are called " sover- 
eigns." At the beginning he explains 
and indicates the simplicity with which 
he addresses them : — 

" Having presumed to address to the 
Sovereigns of Europe a Memorial .... 
permit me now to address this Memo- 
rial to you, Sovereigns of America. I 
shall not address you with the court 

* Franklin, Works, Vol. IX. p. 491. 

t John Adams, Works, Vol. VIII. p. 179. 



titles of Gothic Europe, nor with those 
of servile Asia. I will neither address 
3'our Sublimity or Majesty, your Grace 
or Holiness, your Eminence or High- 
mightiness, your Excellence or Honors. 
What are tides, where things them- 
selves are known and understood ? 
What title did the Republic of Rome 
take .'' The state was known to be sover- 
eign and the citizens to be free. What 
could add to this .? Therefore, United 
States and Citizens of America, I ad- 
dress you as you are." * 

Here again are the same constant 
sympathy with liberty, the same confi- 
dence in our national destinies, and 
the same aspirations for our prosperity, 
mingled with warnings against disturb- 
ing influences. He exhorts that all our 
foundations should be " laid in nature " ; 
that there should be "no contention 
for, nor acquisition of, unequal domina- 
tion in men " ; and that union should 
be established on the attractive prin- 
ciple by which all are drawn to a com- 
mon centre. He fears difficulty in 
making the line of frontier between us 
and the British Provinces "a hne of 
peace," as it ought to be ; he is anxious 
lest something may break out between 
us and Spain ; and he suggests that pos- 
sibly, " in the cool hours of unimpas- 
sioned reflection," we may learn the 
danger of our "alliances," — referring 
plainly to that original alliance with 
France which, at a later day, was the 
occasion of such trouble. Two other 
warnings occur. One is against Sla- 
very, which is more noteworthy, be- 
cause in an earlier memorial he enu- 
merates among articles of commerce 
" African slaves carried by a circuitous 
trade in American shipping to the West 
India market." f The other warning is 
thus strongly expressed : — " Every in- 
habitant of America is, de facto as well 
as de jure, equal, in his essential, in- 
separable rights of the individual, to 
any other individual, and is, in these 
rights, independent of any power that 

* Pownall, Memorial to the Sovereigns of Amer- 
ica, pp. 5, 6. 

t Pownall, Memorial to the Sovereigns of Europe, 
p. 83. 



186;.] 



David Hartley. 



•91 



any other can assume over him, over 
his labor, or his property. This is a 
principle in act and deed, and not a 
mere speculative theorem." * 

I close this strange and striking testi- 
mony, all from one rnan, with his fare- 
well words to Franklin. As Pownall 
heard that the great philosopher and 
negotiator was about to embark for the 
United States, he wrote to him from 
Lausanne, tinder date of 2>d July, 
1785, as follows : — 

" Adieu, my dear friend. You are go- 
ing to a New World, formed to ex- 
hibit a scene which the Old World 
never yet saw. You leave me here in 
the Old World, which, like myself, be- 
gins to feel, as Asia hath felt, that it 
is wearing out apace. We shall never 
meet again on this earth ; but there is 
another world where we shall, and 
where ive shall be understood.^'' 

Clearly Pownall was not understood 
in his time ; but it is evident that he 
understood our country as few English- 
men since have been able to under- 
stand it. 



David Hartley. — 1775, 1785. 

Another friend of our country in 
England was David Hartley. He was 
constant and even pertinacious on our 
side, although less prophetic than Pow- 
nall, with whom he co-operated in pur- 
pose and activity. His father was Hart- 
ley the metaphysician, and author of 
the ingenious theory of sensation. The 
son was born 1729, and died at Bath, 
1813. During our revolution he sat in 
Parliament for Kingston - upon - Hull. 
He was also the British plenipotentiary 
in negotiating the definitive Treaty of 
Peace with the United States. He, too, 
has dropped out of sight. In the bio- 
graphical dictionaries he has only a few 
lines. But he deserves a considerable 
place in the history of our independ- 
ence. 

John Adams was often austere, and 

* Pownall, Memorial to the Sovereigns of Amer- 
ica, p. 55. 



sometimes cynical in his judgments. 
Evidently he did not like Hartley. In 
one place he speaks of him as " talk- 
ative and disputatious, and not always 
intelligible";* then, as "a person of 
consummate vanity " ; f and then, again, 
when he was appointed to sign the 
definitive Treaty, he says, "it would 
have been more agreeable to have fin- 
ished with Mr. Oswald " ;% and, in still 
another place, he records, " Mr. Hart- 
ley was as copious as usual." § And yet, 
when writing most elaborately to Count 
de Vergennes on the prospects of the 
negotiation with England, he introduces 
opinions of Hartley at length, saying 
that he was " more for peace than any 
man in the kingdom." || Such testi- 
mony may well outweigh the other ex- 
pressions, especially as nothing of the 
kind appears in the correspondence of 
Franklin, with whom Hartley was much 
more intimate. 

The Parliamentary History is a suf- 
ficient monument for Hartley. He was 
a frequent speaker, and never missed 
an opportunity of pleading our cause. 
Although without the immortal elo- 
quence of Burke, he was always clear 
and full. Many of his speeches seem 
to have been written out by himself. 
He was not a tardy convert. He be- 
gan as " a new member " by support- 
ing an amendment favorable to the 
Colonies, 5th December, 1774. In 
March, 1775, he brought forward " prop- 
ositions for conciliation with Ameri- 
ca," which he sustained in an elaborate 
speech, where he avowed that the 
American Question had occupied him 
already for some time : — 

"Though I have so lately had the 
honor of a seat in this House, yet I 
have for many years turned my thoughts 
and attention to matters of public con- 
cern and national policy. This ques- 
tion of America is now of many years' 
standing." 1[ 

In the course of this speech he thus 

* John Adams, Works, VoL IX. p. 517. 

t Ibid., Vol. III. p. 137. 

X Ibid.. Vol. VIII. p. 54. 

§ Ibid., Vol. III. p. 363. 

II Ibid., Vol. VII. p. 226. 

IT ParliaraenUry History, Vol. XVIII. p. 553. 



292 



Prophetic Voices about Anterica. 



[September, 



acknowledges the services of New Eng- 
land at Louisburg : — 

" In that war too, sir, they took 
Louisburg from the French, single- 
handed, without any European assist- 
ance, — as mettled an enterprise as any 
in our history,— an everlasting memo- 
rial of the zeal, courage, and persever- 
ance of the troops of New England. 
The men themselves dragged the can- 
non over a morass which had always 
been thought impassable, where nei- 
ther horses nor oxen could go, and 
they carried the shot upon their backs. 
And what was their reward for this for- 
ward and spirited enterprise, — for the 
reduction of this American Dunkirk ? 
Their reward, sir, you know very well ; 
it was given up for a barrier to the 
Dutch." * 

All his various propositions were 
negatived ; but he was not disheart- 
ened. On every occasion he spoke, 
— now on the budget, then on the 
address, and then on specific proposi- 
tions. At this time he asserted the 
power of Parliament over the Colonies, 
and he proposed on the 2d November, 
1775, that 3- test of submission by the 
Colonists should be the recognition of 
an act of Parliament, " enacting that 
all the slaves in America should have 
the trial by jury." f Shortly afterwards 
on tlie ^tJi December, ^775, he brought 
forward another set of "propositions 
for conciliation with America," where, 
among other things, he embodied tlie 
test on slavery, which he put forward 
as a compromise ; and here his language 
belongs, not only to the history of our 
Revolution, but to the history of anti- 
slavery. While declaring that in his 
opinion Great Britain was " the ag- 
gressor in everything," he sought to 
bring the two countries together on a 
platform of human rights, which he 
thus explained : — 

" The act to be proposed to America, 
as an aiispiciotis deginnitig to lay the 
first stone of tmiversal liberty to man- 
kind, should be what no American could 
hesitate an instant to comply with, 

* Parliairentary History, Vol. XVIII. p. 556. 
t Ibid., p. 846. 



namely, that every slave in North 
America should be entitled to his trial 
by jury in all criminal cases. America 
cannot refuse to accept and enroll such 
an act as this, and thereby to re-estab- 
lish peace and harmony with the parent 
state. Let us all bs re-united in tJiis, 
as a foundation to extirpate slavery 
from the face of the earth. Let those 
who seek justice and liberty for the77i- 
selves give that justice and liberty to 
their fellow-creatures. With respect 
to putting a final period to slavery 
in North America, it should seem 
best that, when this country had led 
the way by the act for jury, each 
Colony, knowing their own peculiar 
circumstances, should undertake the 
work in the most practicable way, 
and that they should endeavor to es- 
tablish seme system by which slavery 
should be in a certain term of years 
abolished. Let the only contention 
henceforward between Great Britain 
and America be, which shall exceed the 
other in zeal for establishing the funda- 
mental rights of liberty for all 7nan- 
kind.'''' * 

The motion was rejected ; but 
among the twenty-three in its favor 
were Fox and Burke. During this 
same month the unwearied defender 
of our country came forward again, 
declaring that he could not be "an 
adviser or a well-wisher to any of the 
vindictive operations against America, 
because the cause is unjust ; but at the 
same time he must be equally earnest 
to secure British interests from de- 
struction," and he thus prophesies : — 

" The fate of America is cast. You 
may bruise its heel ; but you cannot 
crush its head. It will revive again. 
The 71CW world is before them. Liberty 
is theirs. They have possession of a 
free government, their birthright and 
inheritance, derived to them from their 
parent state, which the hand of violence 
cannot wrest from them. If you will 
cast them off, my last wish is to them. 
May they go and prosper ! " 

Again, on the loth May, 1776, he 
vindicated anew his original proposi- 

* Parliamentary History, Vol. XVIII. p. 1050. 



1867.] 



David Hartley. 



29- 



tion, and here again he testifies for 
peace and against slavery. 

"For the sake of peace, therefore, 
I did propose a test of compromise 
by an act of acceptance, on the part of 
the Colonists, of an act of Parliament 
which should lay the foundation for 
the extirpation of the horrid custom of 
slavery in the New World. My motion 
was simply an act of compromise and 
reconciliation ; and, as far as it was 
a legislative act, it was still to have 
been applied in correcting the laws of 
slavery in America, which I considered 
as repugnant to the laws of the real.n 
of England and to the fundamentals l.I 
our constitution. Such a compromise 
would at the same time have saved the 
national honor." * 

All gratitude to the hero who at this 
early day vowed himself to the abo- 
lition of slavery. Hartley is among 
the first of abolitionists, with hardly a 
predecessor except Granville Sharp, 
and in Parliament absolutely the first. 
Clarkson was at this time fifteen years 
old, Wilberforce sixteen. It was only 
in 1787 that Clarkson obtained the 
prize for the best Latin essay on the 
question, " Is it right to make men 
slaves against their will?" It was 
not until 1791 that Wilberforce moved 
for leave to bring in a bill for the abo- 
lition of the slave-trade. Surely it is a 
great honor for one man, that he should 
have come forward in Parliament as an 
avowed abolitionist, while he was at 
the same time a vindicator of our inde- 
pendence. 

Again, on the 15th May, 1777, Hart- 
ley pleaded for us, saying : — 

"At sea, which has hitherto been 
our prerogative element, they rise 
against us at a stupendous rate ; and 
if we cannot return to our old mutual 
hospitalities towards each other, a very 
few years will show us a most formida- 
ble hostile marine, ready to join hands 

with any of our enemies I will 

venture to prophesy thet the principles 
of a federal alliance are the only terms 
of peace that ever will and that ever 

» Parliamentary History, Vol. XVIII. p. 1356. 



ought to obtain between the two coun- 
tries." * 

On the 15th June, immediately after- 
wards, the Parliamentary History re- 
ports briefly : — 

" Mr. Hartley went upon the cruel- 
ties of slavery, and urged the Board of 
Trade to take some means of mitigat- 
ing it. He produced a pair of hand- 
cuffs, which he said was a manufacture 
they were now going to establish."! 

Thus again the abolitionist reap- 
^peared in the vindicator of our inde- 
pendence. On the 22d June, 1779, he 
brought forward another formal motion 
" for reconciliation with America," and, 
in the course of a well-considered 
speech, denounced the ministers for 
" headstrong and inflexible obstinacy 
in prosecuting a cruel and destructive 
American war." t On the 3d Decem- 
ber, 1779, in what is called " a very 
long speech," he returned to his theme, 
inveighing against ministers for " the 
favorite, though wild. Quixotic, and im- 
practicable measure of coercing Amer- 
ica." § These are only instances. 

During this time he had maintained 
a correspondence with Franklin, which 
appears in the " Diplomatic Correspond- 
ence of the Revolution," and all of 
which attests his desire for peace. In 
1778 he came to Paris on a confidential 
errand, especially to confer with Frank- 
Hn. It was on this occasion that John 
Adams met him and judged him se- 
verely. In 1783 he was appointed a 
commissioner to sign the definitiv^e 
Treaty of Peace. 

These things belong to histor3\ 
Though perhaps not generally known, 
they are accessible. I have presented 
them partly for their intrinsic value 
and their prophetic character, and 
partly as an introduction to an un- 
published letter from Hartley which I 
received some time ago from an Eng- 
lish friend who has since been called 
away from important labors. The 
letter concerns emigration to our coun- 

* Parliamentary History, Vol. XIX. pp. 259, 260. 
t Ibid., p. 315. 
X Ibid., p. 904. 
§ Ibid., p. 1 190. 



294 



Prophetic Voices about America. 



[September, 



try and the payment of the national 
debt. 

The following indorsement will ex- 
plain its character : — 

" Note. This is a copy of the ma- 
terial portion of a long letter from D. 
Hartley, the British Commissioner in 
Paris, to Lord Sydenham, January, 
1785. The original was sold by C. 
Robinson, of 21 Bond Street, London, 
on the 6th April, 1859, at a sale of Hart- 
ley's MSS. and papers chiefly relating 
to the United States of America. !• 
was Hartley's copy, in his own hand. 

" The lot was No. 82 in the sale cata- 
logue. It was bought by J. R. Smith, 
the London bookseller, for ^2 6s. od. 

" I had a copy made before the sale. 
" Joseph Parkes. 

"London, i8 July, '59." 

The letter is as follows : — 

" My Lord,— In your Lordship's last 
letter to me, just before my leaving 
Paris, you are pleased to say that any 
information which I might have been 
able to collect of a nature to promote 
the mutual and reciprocal interests of 
Great Britain and the United States of 
America would be extremely accept- 
able to his Majesty's government. 
.... Annexed to this letter I have 
the honor of transmitting to your 
Lordship some papers and documents 
which I have received from the Ameri- 
can Ministers. One of them (No. 5) 
is a Map of the Continent of North 
America, in which the land ceded to 
them by the late treaty of peace is divid- 
ed, by parallels of latitude and longi- 
tude, into fourteen new States. The 
whole project, in its full extent, would 
take many years in its execution, and 
therefore it must be far beyond the 
present race of men to say, ' This 
shall be so.' Nevertheless, those who 
have the first care of this New World 
will probably give it such directions and 
inherent infiuences as may gnide and 
control its course and revohitions for 
ages to come. But these plans, being 
beyond the reach of man to predes- 
tinate, are likewise beyond the reach 
of comment or speculation to say what 



may or may not be possible, or to pre- 
dict what events may hereafter be pro- 
duced by time, climates, soils, adjoining 
nations, or by the unwieldy magnitude 
of empire, and the future population of 
millions superadded to millions. The 
sources of the Mississippi may be un- 
known. The lines of longitude and 
latitude may be extended into unex- 
plored regions, and the plan of this 
new creation may be sketched out by 
a presumptuous compass, if all its in- 
termediate uses and functions were to 
be suspended until the final and precise 
accomplishment, without failure or de- 
viation, of this unbounded plan. But 
this is not the case ; the immediate 
objects in view are limited and precise ; 
they are of prudent thought, and within 
the scope of human power to measure 
out and to execute. The principle in- 
deed is indefinite, and will be left to the 
test of future ages to determine its 
duration or extent. I take the liberty 
to suggest thus much, lest we should 
be led away to suppose that the coun- 
cils which have produced these plans 
have had no wiser or more sedate views 
than merely the amusement of draw- 
ing meridians of ambition and high 
thoughts. There appear to me to be 
two solid and rational objects in view : 
the first is, by the sale of lands nearly 
contiguous to the present States (re- 
ceiving Congress paper in payment ac- 
cording to its scale of depreciation) to 
extinguish the prese?tt national debt, 
which I understand might be dis- 
charged for about twelve millions ster- 
ling. 

" If your Lordship will cast your eye 
upon the map to the south and east of 
the Ohio and the Mississippi, you will 
see many millions of acres, which, val- 
ued at a single dollar per acre, would 
discharge many millions sterling. The 
whole space within the boundaries 
lately conceded to the United States, 
together with the unoccupied lands 
eastward of the great rivers, may 
perhaps contain near half a million 
of square miles (in acres, perhaps three 
hundred millions, more or less). A 
sixth part of this, the nearest parts 



My.] 



David Hartley. 



295 



being likewise the most valuable, would 
discharge the whole of their national 
debt. It is a new proposition to be 
offered to the numerous common rank 
of mankind in all the countries of the 
world, to say that there are in America 
fertile soils and temperate climates in 
which an acre of land may be pur- 
chased for a trifling consideration, 
which may be possessed in freedom, 
together with all the natural and civil 
rights of mankind. The Congress have 
already proclaimed this, and that no 
other qualification or name is necessary 
but to become settlers, without distinc- 
tion of countries or persons. The 
European peasant, who toils for his 
scanty sustenance in penury, wretch- 
edness, and servitude, will eagerly fly to 
this asylum for free and industrious la- 
bor. The tide of immigration may set 
strongly outward from Scotland, Ire- 
land, and Canada to this new land of 
promise. A very great proportion of 
men in all the countries of the world 
are without property, and generally are 
subject to governments of which they 
have no participation, and over whom 
they have no control. The Congress 
have now opened to all the world a sale 
of landed settlements where the liberty 
and property of each individual is to be 
consigned to his own custody and de- 
fence. The first settlers, as the seed- 
lings of a new State, will be under a 
temporary government of their own 
choice, provided it be similar to some 
one of the present American govern- 
ments. But as soon as their numbers 
shall amount to twenty thousand, their 
temporary government is to cease, and 
they are to establish a permanent gov- 
ernment for themselves, and when- 
ever such new State shall have of free 
inhabitants as many as shall be in any 
one the least numerous of the original 
States. These are such propositions 
of free establishments as have never 
yet been offered to mankind, and can- 
not fail of producing great effects in the 
future progress of things. The Con- 
gress have arranged their offers in the 
most inviting and artful terms, and 
lest individual peasants and laborers 



should not have the means of removing 
themselves, they throw out inducements 
to moneyed adventurers to purchase 
and to undertake the settlement by 
commission and agency, without per- 
sonal residence, by stipulating that the 
lands of proprietors being absentees 
shall not be higher taxed than the 
lands of residents. This will quicken 
the sale of lands, which is their object. 
For the explanation of these points, I beg 
leave to refer your Lordship to the doc- 
wments annexed, Nos. 5 and 6, namely, 
the Map and Resolutions of Congress, 
dated April, 1784. There is another 
circumstance would confirm that it is 
the intention of Congress to invite 
moneyed adventurers to make pur- 
chases and settlements, which is the 
precise and mathematical mode of di- 
viding and marking out for sale the 
lands in each new proposed State. 
These new States are to be divided 
by parallel lines running north and 
south, and by other parallels running 
east and west. They are to be divided 
into hundreds often geographical miles 
square, and then again into lots of one 
square mile. The divisions are laid 
out as regularly as the squares upon 
a chessboard, and all to be formed into 
a Charter of Compact. 

"They may be purchased by pur- 
chasers at any distance, and the titles 
may be verified by registers of such 
or such numbers, north or south, east 
or west ; all this is explained by the 
document annexed. No. 7, viz. The 
Ordinance for asceriaming the mode 
of locating and disposing of lands in 
the Western Territory. This is their 
plan and means for paying off their na- 
tional debt, and they seem very intent 
upon doing it. I should observe that 
their debt consists of two parts, namely, 
domestic and foreign. The sale of lands 
is to be appropriated to the former. 

"The domestic debt may perhaps be 
nine or ten millions, and the foreign 
debt two or three. For payment of 
the foreign debt it is proposed to lay 
a tax of five per cent upon all imports 
until discharged, which, I am informed, 
has already been agreed to by most 



PropJietic Voices about Ameiica: 



[September, 



of the States, and probably will soon 
be confirmed by the rest. Upon the 
whole, it appears that this plan is as 
prudently conceived and as judiciously 
arranged, as to the end proposed, as 
any experienced cabinet of European 
ministers could have devised or planned 
any similar project. The second point 
which appears to me to be deserving 
of attention, respecting the immense 
cession of territory to the United States 
at the late peace, is a point luJiich will 
perhaps in a few years become an un^ 
paralleled phenomenon in the political 
■world. As soon as the national debt 
of the United States shall be discharged 
by the sale of one portion of those 
lands, we shall then see the Confed- 
erate Republic in a new character, as 
a proprietor of lands, either for sale 
or to let upon rents, while other na- 
tions may be struggling under debts too 
enormous to be discharged either by 
economy or taxation, and while they 
may be laboring to raise ordinary and 
necessary supplies by burdensome im- 
positions upon their own persons and 
properties. Here will be a nation pos- 
sessed of a new and unheard of financial 
organ of stupendous magnitude, and in 
process of time of unmeasured value, 
thrown into their lap as a fortuitous 
superflitity, and almost withojct being 
sought for.' 

" When such an organ of revenue 
begins to arise into jDroduce and ex- 
ertion, what public uses it may be ap- 
plicable to, or to what abuses and 
perversions it might be rendered sub- 
servient, is far beyond the reach of 
probable discussion now. Such discus- 
sions would only be visionary specu- 
lations. However, thus far it is obvious 
and highly deserving of our attention, 
that it cannot fail becoming to the 
American States a most important in- 
strument of national power, the pro- 
gress and operation of which must 
hereafter be a most interesting object 
of attentiojt to the British Atnerican 
dominions which are in close vicinity 
to the territories of the United States, 
and I should hope that these considera- 
tions would lead us, inas?/tuch as we 



value those parts of our dominions, 
to encourage conciliatory and amicable 
correspondence between them and their 
neigJibors. 

" I have thus, my Lord, endeavored to 
comply with your Lordship's commands 
to the best of my power, in stating such 
information to his Majesty's govern- 
ment as I have been enabled to collect 
of such nature as may tend to the 
mutual and reciprocal interest of Great 
Britain and the United States of Amer- 
ica. I do not recollect at present any- 
thing further to trouble your Lordship 
with. If any of the foregoing points 
should require any further elucidation, 
I shall always be ready to obey your 
Lordship's summons, or to give in any 
other way the best explanations in my 
power." 

Count d'Aranda. — 1783. 

The Count d'Aranda was one of the 
first of Spanish statesmen and diplo- 
matists, and one of the richest sub- 
jects of Spain in his day ; born at Sara- 
gossa, 171 8, and died 1799. He, too, 
is one of our prophets. Originally a 
soldier, he became ambassador, gover- 
nor of a province, and prime minister. 
In the latter post he displayed charac- 
ter as well as ability, and was the ben- 
efactor of his country. He drove the 
Jesuits from Spain and dared to op- 
pose the Inquisition. He was a phi- 
losopher, and, like Pope Benedict XIV., 
corresponded with Voltaire. Such a 
liberal spirit was out of place in Spain. 
Compelled to resign in 1773, he found 
a retreat at Paris as ambassador, where 
he came into communication with 
Franklin, Adams, and Jay, and finally 
signed the Treaty of Paris, by which 
Spain acknowledged our independence. 
Sliortly afterwards he returned to Spain 
and took the place of Florida Blanca as 
prime minister. 

Franklin, on meeting him, records, 
in his letter to the secret committee of 
Congress, that he seemed "well dis- 
posed to us." * Shortly afterwards he 

* Franklin, Works, Vol. VIII. p. 194. 



1867.] 



Count d'Aranda. 



297 



had another interview with him, which 
he thus chronicles in his journal : — 

"■^Saturday, June zgth [1782]. — We 
went together to the Spanish Ambassa- 
dor's, who received us with great civili- 
ty and politeness. He spoke with Mr. 
Jay on the subject of the treaty they 

were to make together On our 

going out, he took pains himself to 
open the folding-doors for us, which is 
a high compliment here, and told us he 
would return our visit {rendre son de- 
voir)^ and then fix a day with us for 
dining with him." * 

Adams, in his journal, describes a 
Sunday dinner at his house, then a 
"new building in the finest situation 
of Paris," f being a part of the incom- 
parable palace, with its columnar front, 
which is still admired as it looks on the 
Place de la Concorde. Jay also de- 
scribes a dinner with the Count, who 
was " living in great splendor, with an 
assortment of wines the finest in Eu- 
rope," and was " the ablest Spaniard he 
had ever known " ; showing by his con- 
versation " that his court is in earnest," 
and appearing "frank and candid, as 
well as sagacious." J These hospi- 
talities have a peculiar interest, when 
it is known, as it now is, that Count 
d'Aranda regarded the acknowledgment 
of our independence with "grief and 
dread." But these sentiments were dis- 
guised from our ministers. 

After signing the Treaty of Paris, by 
which Spain acknowledged our inde- 
pendence, D'Aranda addressed a me- 
moir secretly to King Charles III., in 
which his opinions on this event are set 
forth. This prophetic document slum- 
bered for a long time in the confiden- 
tial archives of the Spanish crown. 
Coxe, in his " Memoirs of the House 
of Bourbon in Spain," which are found- 
ed on a rare collection of original docu- 
ments, makes no allusion to it. The 
memoir appears for the first time in a 
volume published at Paris in 1837, and 
entitled Gojivernement de Charles III., 

* Franklin, Works, Vol. IX. p. 350. 
t John Adams, Works, Vol. III. p. 379. 
t Jay, Life of John Jay, Vol. I. p. 140; Vol. II. 
p. lOI. 



Roi dEspagne, ou Instntclion reservee 
a la Junte dJEiatpar ce Monarque. Pub- 
liee par D. Andre Muriel. The editor 
had already translated into French the 
Memoirs of Coxe, and was probably 
led by this labor to make the supple- 
mentary collection. An abstract of the 
memoir of D'Aranda appears in one of 
the historical dissertations of the Mex- 
ican authority, Alaman, who said of it 
that it has "a just celebrity, because 
results have made it pass for a proph- 
ecy."* I translate it now from the 
. P'rench of Muriel. 

'■'■Memoir commnnicated secretly to the 
King by his Excellency the Count 
dAranda, on the Independc^nce of 
the English Colotties, after having 
signed the Treaty of Paris of 1783. 
" The independence of the English 
colonies has been acknowledged. This 
is for me an occasion of grief and dread. 
France has few possessions in Ameri- 
ica ; but she should have considered 
that Spain, her intimate ally, has many, 
and that she is left to-day exposed to 
terrible shocks. From the beginning, 
France has acted contrary to her true 
interests in encouraging and seconding 
this independence ; I have so declared 
often to the ministers of this nation. 
What could happen better for France 
than to see the English and the colo- 
nists destroy each other in a party war- 
fare which could only augment her 
power and favor her interests ? The 
antipathy which reigns between France 
and England blinded the French Cabi- 
net ; it forgot that its interest consist- 
ed in remaining a tranquil spectator 
of this conflict ; and, once launched 
in the arena, it dragged us unhappily, 
and by virtue of the family compact, 
into a war entirely contrary to our 
proper interest. 

" I will not stop here to examine the 
opinions of some statesmen, our own 
countrymen as well as foreigners, which 
I share, on the diffictdty of preservi/ig 
our power in America. Never have so 
extensive possessions .^ placed at a great 

* Alaman, Disertaciones sobre la Historia de la, 
Refublica Megicana, Tomo III. pp. 351, 352. 



Prophetic Voices about America. 



[September, 



distance from the metropolis, been long 
preserved. To this cause, applicable 
to all colonies, must be added others 
peculiar to the Spanish possessions ; 
namely, the difficulty of succoring them 
in case of need ; the vexations to which 
the unhappy inhabitants have been ex- 
posed from some of the governors ; the 
distance of the supreme authority to 
which they must have recourse for the 
redress of grievances, which causes 
years to pass before justice is done to 
their complaints ; the vengeance of the 
local authorities to which they con- 
tinue exposed while waiting ; the diffi- 
culty of knowing the truth at so great 
a distance ; finally, the means which the 
viceroys and governors, from being 
Spaniards, cannot fail to have for ob- 
taining favorable judgments in Spain ; 
all these diiTerent circumstances will 
render the inhabitants of America dis- 
contented, and make them attempt ef- 
forts to obtain independence as soon 
as they shall have a propitious occa- 
sion. 

" Without entering into any of these 
considerations, I shall confine myself 
now to that which occupies us from the 
dread of seeing ourselves exposed to 
dangers from the new power which we 
have just recognized in a country where 
there is no other in condition to arrest 
its progress. This Federal Republic is 
born a pygmy, so to speak. It required 
the support and the forces of two pow- 
ers as great as Spain and France in 
order to attain independence. A day 
will come wiien it will be a giant, even 
a colossus formidable in these conniries. 
It will then forget the benefits which it 
has received from the two powers, and 
will dream of nothing but to organize 
itself. Liberty of conscience, the facility 
for establishing a new population on 
immense lands, as well as the advan- 
tages of tlie new government, will draw 
thither agricnlturists and artisans front 
all the nations ; for men always run 
after fortune. A nd in a few years we 
shall see with true grief the tyran7iical 
existence of this same colossus of which 
I speak. 

" The first movement of this power, 



when it has arrived at its aggrandize- 
ment, will be to obtain possession of 
the Floridas, in order to dominate the 
Gulf of Mexico. After having ren- 
dered commerce with New Spain diffi- 
cult for us, it will aspire to the con- 
quest of this vast empire, which it will 
not be possible for us to defend against 
a formidable power established on the 
same continent, and in its neighbor- 
hood. These fears are well founded, 
Sire ; they will be changed into reality 
in a few years, if, indeed, there are not 
other disorders in our Americas still 
more fatal. This observation is justi- 
fied by what has happened in all ages, 
and with all nations which have begun 
to rise. Man is the same everywhere ; 
the difference of climate does not 
change the nature of our sentiments ; 
he who finds the opportunity of acquir- 
ing power and of aggrandizing himself, 
profits by it always. How then can 
we expect the Americans to respect 
the kingdom of New Spain, when they 
shall have the facility of possessing 
themselves of this rich and beautiful 
country ? A wise policy counsels us 
to take precautions against evils which 
may happen. This thought has occu- 
pied my whole mind, since, as Minister 
Plenipotentiary of your Majesty, and 
conformably to your royal will and in- 
structions, I signed the Peace of Paris. 
I have considered this important affair 
with all the attention of which I am 
capable, and after much reflection drawn 
from the knowledge, military as well as 
political, which I have been able to ac- 
quire in my long career, I think that, 
in order to escape the great losses with 
which we are threatened, there remains 
nothing but the means which I am 
about to have the honor of exhibiting 
to your Majesty. 

" Your Majesty must relieve yourself 
of all your possessions on the continent 
of the two Americas, preserving only 
the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico in 
the northern part, and some other con- 
venient one in the southern part, to 
serve as a seaport or trading-place for 
Spanish commerce. 

" In order to accomplish this great 



186;.] 



Burns. 



299 



thought in a manner becoming to 
Spain, three infantas must be placed in 
America, — one as king of Mexico, an- 
other as king of Peru, and the third as 
king of the Terra Firma. Your Ma- 
jesty will take the title of Emperor." 

I have sometimes heard this remark- 
able memoir called apocryphal, but 
without reason, except because its fore- 
sight is so remarkable. The Mexican 
historian Alaman treats it as genuine, 
and, after praising it, informs us that the 
proposition of Count d'Aranda to the 
king was not taken into consideration, 
which, according to him, was "disas- 
trous to all, and especially to the peo- 
ple of America, who in this way would 
have obtained independence without 
struggle or anarchy." * Meanwhile all 
the American possessions of the Span- 
ish crown, except Cuba and Porto 
Rico, have become independent, as 
predicted, and the new power, known 
as the United States, which at that 
time was a " pygmy," has become a 
" colossus." 

D'Aranda was not alone in surprise 
at the course of Spain. The English 
traveller Burnaby, in his edition of 
1796, mentions this as one of the rea- 
sons for the success of the colonists, 
and declares that he had not supposed, 
originally, " that Spain would join in a 
plan inevitably leading by slow and 
imperceptible steps to the final loss of 
all her rich possessions in America."! 
This was not an uncommon idea. One 
of John Adams's Dutch correspondents, 
under date of 14th September, 1780, 
writes he has heard it said twenty times, 
that, " if America becomes free, it will 
some day give the law to Europe ; it 
will seize our islands and our colonies 
of Guiana ; it will seize all the West 
Indies ; it will swallow Mexico, even 
Peru, Chili, and Brazil ; it will take from 
us our freighting commerce ; it will pay 
its benefactors with ingratitude." $ Mr. 
Adams also records in his diary, un- 

* Alaman, Disertaciones, Tomo III. p. 333. 
t Burnaby, Travels in North America, Preface, 
p. 10. 

\ John Adams, Works, Vol. VII. p. 254. 



der date of 14th December, 1779, on 
his landing at Ferrol in Spain, that, ac- 
cording to the report of various per- 
sons, "the Spanish nation in general 
have been of opinion that the Revolu- 
tion in America was of bad example to 
the Spanish colonies, and dangerous to 
the interests of Spain, as the United 
States, should they become ambitious, 
and be seized with the spirit of con- 
quest, might aim at Mexico and Peru."* 
All this is entirely in harmony with the 
memoir of the Count d'Aranda. 

Burns. — 1788. 

From Count d'Aranda to Robert 
Burns, — from the rich and titled min- 
ister, faring sumptuously in the best 
house of Paris, to the poor ploughboy 
poet, strugghng in a cottage, — what a 
contrast ! Of the poet I shall say noth- 
ing, except that he was born 25th Janu- 
ary, 1759, and died 21st July, 1796, in 
the thirty-seventh year of his age. 

There is only a slender thread of 
Burns to be woven into this web, and 
yet, coming from him, it must not be 
neglected. In a letter dated Wi No- 
vember, 1788, after saying a friendly 
word for the unfortunate house of 
Stuart, he thus prophetically alludes 
to our independence : — 

" I will not, I cannot, enter into the 
merits of the cause, but I dare say the 
American Congress, in 1776, will be 
allowed to be as able and as enlight- 
ened as the English Convention was 
in 1688 ; ajid that their posterity will 
celebrate the centenary of their deliver- 
ance from us, as duly and sincerely as 
we do ours from the oppressive meas- 
ures of the house of Stuart. '''' f 

The year 1788, when these words 
were written, was a year of commemora- 
tion, being the hundredth from the fa- 
mous revolution by which the Stuarts 
were excluded from the throne of Eng- 
land. The " centenary " of our inde- 
pendence is not yet completed ; but 
long ago the commemoration began. 

♦John Adams, Works, Vol. III. p. 234. 
t Currie, Life and Works of Burns, p. 266; Gra- 
ham*, History of United States, Vol. IV. p. 462. 



300 



PropJietic Voices about At 



[September 



On the coming of that hundredth anni- 
versary, the prophecy of Burns will be 
more than fulfilled. 

Fox. — 1794. "^ 

In quoting from Charles James Fox. 
the statesman, minister, and orator, I 
need add nothing, except that he was 
born 24th January, 1749, and died 13th 
September, 1806, and that he was an 
early friend of our country. 

Many words of his, especially during 
our Revolution, might be introduced 
here ; but I content myself with a sin- 
gle passage of a later date, which, 
besides its expression of good-will, is a 
prophecy of our power. It will be found 
in a speech on his motion for put- 
ting an end to war with France in the 
House of Commons, 30M May, 1794. 

" It was impossible to dissemble that 
we had a serious dispute with America, 
and although we might be confident 
that the wisest and best man of his 
age, who presided in the government 
of that country, would do everything 
that became him to avert a war, it 
was impossible to foresee the issue. 
America had no fleet, no army ; but in 
case of war she would find various 
means to harass and annoy us. Against 
her we could not strike a blow that 
would not be as severely felt in Lon- 
don as in America, so identified were 
the two countries by commercial inter- 
course. To a contest with such an 
adversary he looked as the greatest pos- 
sible misfortune. If we commenced 
another crusade against her, we might 
destroy her trade, and check the pro- 
gress of her agriculture, but we must 
also equally injure ourselves. Des- 
perate, therefore, indeed, must be that 
war in which each wound inflicted on 
our enemy would at the same time 
inflict one upon ourselves. He hoped 
to God that such an event as a war 
with America would not happen." * 

All good men on both sides of the 
ocean must join with Fox, who thus 
early deprecated a war between the 
United States and England, and por- 

* Parliamentary History, Vol. XXXI. p. 627. 



trayedthe consequences. Time, which 
has enlarged and multiplied the rela- 
tions between the two countries, makes 
his words more applicable now than 
when he first uttered them. 

George Canning. — 1826. 

George Canning was a successor 
of Fox, in the House of Commons, as 
statesman, minister, and orator ; he 
was born nth April, 1770, and died 
8th August, 1827, in the beautiful villa 
of the Duke of Devonshire, at Chis- 
wick, where Fox had died before. Un- 
like Fox in sentiment for our country, 
he is nevertheless associated with a 
leading event of our history, and is the 
author of prophetic words. 

The Monroe Doctrine, as it is now 
familiarly called, proceeded from Can- 
ning. He was its inventor, promoter, 
and champion, at least so far as it 
bears against European intervention in 
American aflfairs. Earnestly engaged 
in counteracting the designs of the 
Holy Alliance for the restoration of 
the Spanish colonies to Spain, he 
sought to enlist the United States in 
the same policy, and when Mr. Rush, 
who was at the time our Minister at 
London, replied that any interference 
with European politics was contrary to 
the traditions of our government, he 
argued that, however just such a policy 
might have been formerly, it was no 
longer applicable, — that the question 
was new and complicated, — that it was 
" full as much American as European, to 
say no more," — that it concerned the 
United States under aspects and inter- 
ests as immediate and commanding as 
those of any of the states of Europe, — 
that "they were the first power on that 
continent, and confessedly the leading 
power"; and he then asked, "Was it 
possible that they could see with in- 
difference their fate decided upon by 
Europe ? Had not a new epoch ar- 
rived in the relative position of the 
United States toward Europe, which 
Europe must acknowledge ? Were the 
great political atid commercial interests 
which hung upon the destinies of the 



[86;.] 



George Canning. — Richard Cobden. 



301 



new continent to be canvassed and 
adjusted in this hemisphere, without 
the co-operation, or even the knowl- 
edge, of the United States ? " With 
mingled ardor and importunity the 
British Minister pressed his case. At 
last, after much discussion in the Cabi- 
net at Washington, President Monroe, 
accepting the lead of Mr. Canning, put 
forth his famous declaration, where, 
after referring to the radical difference 
between the political systems of Europe 
and America, he says, that " we should 
consider any attempt on their part to 
extend their systems to any portion of 
this hemisphere as dangerous to our 
peace and safety" and that, where gov- 
ernments have been recognized by us 
as independent, " we could not view 
any interposition for the purpose of 
oppressing them, or controlling in any 
other manner their destiny, by any 
European power, in any other light 
than as a manifestation of an 7in- 
friendly disposition toward the United 
States y * 

The message of President Monroe 
was received in England with enthusi- 
astic congratulations. It was upon all 
f tongues ; the press was full of it ; the 
' securities of Spanish America rose in 
the market ; the agents of Spanish 
.^America were happy.f Brougham ex- 
claimed, in Parliament, that " no event 
had ever dispersed greater joy, exulta- 
tion, and gratitude over all the freemen 
of Europe." Mackintosh rejoiced in 
the coincidence of England and the 
United States, "the two great com- 
monwealths, for so he delighted to call 
them ; and he heartily prayed that they 
may be forever united in the cause of 
justice and liberty." J The Holy Alli- 
ance abandoned their purposes on this 
continent, and the independence of the 
Spanish colonies in America was estab- 
lished. Some time afterwards, on the 
occasion of assistance to Portugal, when 
Mr. Canning felt called to review and 

\J* Annual Message to Congress of 2d December, 

jj: Rush, Memoranda of Residence at London, 
"Vol. II. p. 458 ; Wheaton, Elements of International 
Law, pp. 97- 112, Dana's note. 
X Stapleton, Life of Canning, Vol. II. pp. 46, 47. 



vindicate his foreign policy, he assumed 
the following lofty strain. This was in 
the House of Commons, \zth December, 
1826: — 

" It would be disingenuous not to ad- 
mit that the entry of the French army 
into Spain was, in a certain sense, a dis- 
paragement, — an affront to our pride, 
— a blow to the feelings of England. 
But I deny that, questionable or cen- 
surable as the act may be, it was one 
that necessarily called for our direct 
and hostile opposition. Was nothing 
then to be done 1 If France occupied 
Spain, was it necessary, in order to 
avoid the consequences of that occupa- 
tion, that we should blockade Cadiz ? 
No. I looked another way. I sought 
materials for compensation in another 
hemisphere. Contemplating Spain, such 
as our ancestors had known her, I re- 
solved that, if France had Spain, it 
should not be Spain 'with the Indies.' 
/ called the New World into existence 
to resist the balance of the Old.'''' * 

The republics of Spanish America, 
thus called into independent existence, 
were to redress the balance of the Old 
World. If they have not contributed 
the weight thus vaunted, the growing 
power of the United States is ample to 
compensate any deficiencies on this 
continent. There is no balance of 
power which it cannot redress, if occa- 
sion requires. 

Richard Cobden. — 1849. 

Coming to our own day, we meet 
a familiar name, now consecrated by 
death, — Richard Cobden ; born 3d 
June, 1804, and died 2d April, 1865. In 
proportion as truth prevails among men, 
his character will shine with increas- 
ing glory until he is recognized as the 
first Englishman of his time. Though 
thoroughly English, he was not insu- 
lar, and he served mankind as well as 
England. 

His masterly faculties and his real 
goodness made him a prophet always. 
He saw the future, and strove to hasten 

r* Canning, Speeches, Vol. VI. pp. io8, log. 



302 



Prophetic Voices about America. 



[September, 



its promises. The elevation and happi- 
ness of the human family were his daily 
thought. He knew how to build as 
well as to destroy. Througl^ him dis- 
abilities upon trade and oppressive 
taxes were overturned ; also a new 
treaty was negotiated with France, 
quickening commerce and intercourse. 
He was never so truly eminent as 
when bringing his practical sense and 
enlarged experience to commend the 
cause of Permanent Peace in the world 
by the establishment of a refined sys- 
tem of International Justice, and the 
disarming of the nations. To this 
great consummation all his later labors 
tended. I have before me a long letter, 
dated at London, jth November, 1849, 
where he says much on this absorbing 
question, from which, by an easy transi- 
tion, he passes to speak of the proposed 
annexation of Canada to the United 
States. As what he says on the latter 
topic concerns America, and is a pro- 
phetic voice, I have obtained permis- 
sion to copy it for this collection. 

"Race, religion, language, traditions, 
are becoming bonds of union, and not 
the parchment title-deeds of sovereigns. 
These instincts may be thwarted for the 
day, but they are too deeply rooted in 
nature and in usefulness not to prevail 
in the end. I look with less interest to 
these struggles of races to live apart 
for what they want to undo, than for 
what they will prevent being done in 
future. They will warn riders that 
henceforth the acquisition of f)-esh terri- 
tory, by force of artjts, will only bring 
embarrassments and civil war, instead 
of that increased strength which, in 
ancient times, when people were passed, 
like flocks of sheep, from one king to 
another, always accompanied the incor- 
poration of new territorial conquests. 

" This is the secret of the admitted 
doctrine, that we shall have no more 
wars of conquest or ambition. In this 
respect 7<77^ are differently situated, hav- 
ing vast tracts of unpeopled territory to 
tempt that cupidity which, in respect of 
landed property, always disposes indi- 
viduals and nations, however rich in 
acres, to desire more. This brings 



me to the subject of Canada, to which 
you refer in your letters. 

" I agree with you, that nature lias 
decided that Canada and the Unit- 
ed States must becoine one, for all 
purposes of free interco77tmunication. 
Whether they also shall be united in 
the same federal government must de- 
pend upon the two parties to the union. 
I can assure you that there will be 
no repetition of the policy of 1776, on 
our part, to prevent our North Ameri- 
can colonies from pursuing their in- 
terest in their own way. If the people 
of Canada are tolerably unanimous in 
wishing to sever the very slight thread 
which now binds them to this country, 
I see no reason why, if good faith and 
ordinary temper be observed, it should 
not be done; amicably. I think it would 
be far more hkely to be accomplished 
peaceably,- if the subject of annexation 
were left as a distinct question. I am 
quite sure that we should be gainers, to 
the amount of about a million sterling 
annually, if our North American colo- 
nists would set up in life for themselves 
and maintain their own establishments, 
and I see no reason to doubt that they 
might be also gainers by being thrown 
upon their own resources. 

"The less your countrymen mingle 
in the controversy, the better. It will 
only be an additional obstacle in the 
path of those in this country who see 
the ultimate necessity of a separation, 
but who have still some ignorance and 
prejudice to contend against, which, if 
used as political capital by designing 
politicians, may complicate seriously a 
very difficult piece of statesmanship. 
It is for you and such as you, who 
love peace, to guide your countrymen 
aright in this matter. You have made 
the most noble contributions of any 
modern writer to the cause of peace ; 
and as a public man I hope you will 
exert all your influence to induce Amer- 
icans to hold a dignified attitude and 
obsprve a ' masterly inactivity ' in the 
controversy which is rapidly advancing 
to a solution between the mother coun- 
try and her American colonies." 

A prudent patriotism among us will 



186;.] 



Lucas Alaman. 



303 



appreciate the wisdom of this counsel, 
which is more needed now than when 
it v.- IS written. The controversy which 
C^bden foresaw "between the mother 
country and her American colonies " is 
yet undetermined. The recent crea- 
tion of what is somewhat grandly called 
" The Dominion of Canada " marks 
one Stage in its progress. 



Lucas Alaman, 



1852. 



From Canada I pass to Mexico, and 
close this list with Lucas Alaman, the 
Mexican statesman and historian, who 
has left on record a most pathetic 
prophecy with regard to his own coun- 
try, intensely interesting to us at this 
moment. 

Little can be gathered here with re- 
gard to this remarkable character. His 
name does not appear in any biographi- 
cal or bibliographical dictionary, — not 
in the late editions of Michaud or Bru- 
net, — although his public life and his 
literary labors might claim for him a 
place in biography and bibliography. 
From the title-page of one of his vol- 
umes it appears that, besides being a 
member of the Mexican Society of 
Geography and Statistics, and also of 
the Fine Arts, he was a corresponding 
member of several foreign societies, 
among which were the Royal Academy 
of History at Madrid, the Royal In- 
stitute of Sciences in Bavaria, the 
Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, 
and the Massachusetts Historical So- 
ciety. It is only in the dearth of 
authentic information with regard to 
him that I mention these circumstan- 
ces. It does not .xppear when he died. 
The Preface to .ne last volume of his 
History is dated i8th November, 1852 ; 
and, as his name is not noticed in Mex- 
ican affairs since then, it is not unrea- 
sonable to suppose that he died shortly 
after this date, although his death first 
appears in the Transactions of the 
Massachusetts Historical Society for 
1861. 

Alaman figured in the Mexican Cor- 
tes, and also as Minister of Foreign 
Affairs, especially under President 



Bustamente. In the latter capacity he 
inspired the respect of foreign diplo- 
matists. One of these, who had oc- 
casion to know him officially, says of 
him, in answer to my inquiries, that 
he "was the greatest statesman which 
Mexico has produced since her inde- 
pendence." His portrait, as engraved 
in one of his volumes, resembles the 
late Mr. Clayton of Delaware. He was 
one of the few persons in any coun- 
try who have been able to unite liter- 
ature with public life, and obtain hon- 
ors in each department. 

His first work was " Dissertations 
on the History of the Mexican Repub- 
lic," Discrtaciones sobre la Historia de 
la Repiiblica Megicana, in three vol- 
umes, published at Mexico, 1844. In 
these he considers the original conquest 
by Cortez ; its consequences ; the con- 
queror and his family ; the propaga- 
tion of the Christian religion in New 
Spain; the formation of the city of 
Mexico ; the history of Spain and the 
house of Bourbon. All these topics 
are treated somewhat copiously. Then 
followed the " History of Mexico, from 
the First Movements which prepared 
its Independence in 1808, to the pres- 
ent Epoch," {Historia de Mejico desde 
los priiJieros Moviinientos que prepara- 
ron a sti Independencia en el A ho de 
1808 /lasla la Epoca presented) in five 
volumes, published at Mexico, the 
first bearing date 1849, ^"d the fifth 
1852. From the Preface to the first 
volume, it appears that the author was 
born in Guanajuato, and witnessed there 
the beginning of the Mexican revo- 
lution in 1810, under Don Miguel Hi- 
dalgo, the curate of Dolores ; that he 
was personally acquainted with the cu- 
rate and with many of those who had a 
principal part in the successes of that 
time ; that he was experienced in pub- 
lic affairs, as deputy and as member 
of the cabinet; and that he had known 
directly the persons and things of which 
he wrote. His last volume embraces 
the government of Iturbide as Emper- 
or, and also his unfortunate death, end- 
ing with the establishment of the Mex- 
ican Federal Republic in 1824. The 



304 



P'/ophetic Voices about America. 



[September, 



work is careful and well considered. 
The eminent diplomatist already men- 
tioned, who had known the author of- 
ficially, writes that " no one was better 
acquainted with the history and causes 
of the incessant revolutions in his un- 
fortunate country, and that his work on 
this subject is considered by all re- 
spectable men in Mexico a chef-ifaji- 
vre for purity of sentiments and patri- 
otic convictions." 

It is on account of the valedictory 
words of this History that I have intro- 
duced the name of Alaman on this occa- 
sion. They are as follows : — 

" Mexico will be, without doubt, a 
land of prosperity from its natural ad- 
vantages, but it will not be so for 
the races which now inhabit it. As it 
seemed the destiny of the peoples who 
established themselves therein at dif- 
ferent and remote epochs to perish from 
the face of it, leaving hardly a memory 
of their existence ; even as the nation 
which built the edifices of Palenque, and 
those which we admire in the penin- 
sula of Yucatan, was destroyed without 
its being known what it was nor how it 
disappeared ; even as the Toltecs pe7'- 
ished by the hands of barbai'ous tribes 
coining from the North, no record of 
them remaining but the pyramids of 
Cholulu and Teotihuacan ; and, final- 
ly, even as the ancient Mexicans fell 
beneath the power of the Spaniards, 
the comitry gaining itifiniiely by this 
chancre of dominion, but its ancient mas- 
ters being overthrozvn; — so likewise its 
present inhabitants shall be ruined and 
hardly obtain the compassion they have 
merited, and the Mexican nation of our 
days shall liave applied to it what a cel- 
ebrated Latin poet said of one of the 
most famous personages of Roman his- 
tory, STAT MAGNI NOMINIS UM- 
BRA,* — nothing more remains than 
the shadow of a name illustrious in 
-another time. 

" May the Almighty, in whose hands 
is the fate of nations, and who by ways 
hidden from our sight abases or exalts 

* In the original text of Alaman this is printed in 
large capitals, and it is explained in a note as said 
by Lucan in his Pharsalia, with regard to Pompey. 



them, according to the designs of his 
providence, be pleased to grant unto 
ours the protection by which he has 
so often deigned to preserve it from 
the dangers to which it has been ex- 
posed." * 

Most affecting words of prophecy ! 
Considering the character of the author 
as statesman and historian, it could 
have been only with inconceivable an- 
guish that he made this terrible record 
with regard to the land whose child 
and servant he was. Born and reared 
in Mexico, honored by its important 
trusts, and writing the history of its 
independence, it was his country, hav- 
ing for him all that makes a country 
dear ; and yet thus calmly he consigns 
the present people to oblivion, while 
another enters into those happy places 
where nature is so bountiful. Thus 
does a Mexican leave the door open to 
the foreigner. 

Conclusion. 

Such are some of the prophetic voi- 
ces about America, differing in char- 
acter and importance, but all having 
one augury, and opening one vista, 
illimitable in extent and vastness. 
Farewell to the idea of Montesquieu, 
that a repubhc can exist only in a small 
territory. 

Ancient prophecy foretold another 
world beyond the ocean, which in the 
mind of Christopher Columbus was 
nothing less than the Orient with its 
inexhaustible treasures. Then came 
the succession of prophets, who dis- 
cerned the future of this continent, be- 
ginning with that rare genius, Sir 
Thomas Browne, who, in the reign of 
Charles II., while the settlements were 
in their infancy, predicted their growth 
in power and civilization ; and then 
that rarest character. Bishop Berkeley, 
who, in the reign of George I., while 
the settlements were still feeble and 
undeveloped, heralded a Western em- 
pire as " Time's noblest offspring." 

These voices are general. Others 

* Alaman, Historia, Tomo V. pp. 954, 9SS- 



186;.] 



Conclusion. 



305 



more precise followed. Turgot, the 
philosopher and minister, saw in youth, 
with the vision of genius, that all colo- 
nies must at their maturity drop from 
the parent stem, like ripe fruit. John 
Adams, one of the chiefs of our own 
history, in a youth illumined as that 
of Turgot, saw the predominance of 
the Colonies in population and power 
followed by the transfer of empire to 
America; then the glory of Independ- 
ence and its joyous celebration by 
grateful generations ; then the triumph 
of our language ; and, finally, the estab- 
lishment of our republican institutions 
over all North America. Then came the 
Abbe Galiani, the Neapolitan French- 
man, who, writing from Naples while 
our struggle was still undecided, gayly 
predicts the total downfall of Europe, 
the transmigration to America, and the 
consummation of the greatest revolu- 
tion of the globe by establishing the 
reign of America over Europe. There 
is also Adam Smith, the illustrious phi- 
losopher, who quietly carries the seat of 
government across the Atlantic. Mean- 
while Pownall, once a Colonial Gover- 
nor and then a member of Parliament, 
in successive works of great detail, fore- 
shadows independence, naval suprem- 
acy, commercial prosperity, immigra- 
tion from the Old World, and a new 
national hfe, destined to supersede the 
systems of Europe and arouse the 
"curses" of royal ministers. Hartley, 
also a member of Parliament, and the 
British negotiator who signed the defin- 
itive treaty of Independence, bravely 
announces in Parliament that the New 
World is before the Colonists, and that 
liberty is theirs ; and afterwards, as 
diplomatist, instructs his government 
that, through the attraction of our pub- 
he lands, immigration will be quick- 
ened beyond precedent and the national 
debt cease to be a burden. D'Aranda, 
the Spanish statesman and diplomatist, 
predicts to his king that the United 
States, though born a " pygmy," will 
soon be a "colossus," under whose 
influence Spain will lose all her Ameri- 
can possessions except only Cuba and 
Porto Rico. Burns, the truthful poet, 
VOL. XX. — NO. 119. 20 



looks forward a hundred years, and 
beholds our people rejoicing in the 
centenary of their independence. Fox, 
the liberal statesman, foresees the in- 
creasing might and various relations 
of the United States, so that a blow 
aimed at them must have a rebound as 
destructive as itself. Canning, the 
briUiant orator, in a much-admired 
flight of eloquence, discerns the New 
World, with its republics just called 
into being, redressing the balance of 
the old. Cobden, whose fame will be 
second only to that of Adam Smith 
among all in this catalogue, calmly pre- 
dicts the separation of Canada from the 
mother country by peaceable means. 
Alaman, the Mexican statesman and 
historian, announces that Mexico, which 
has already known so many successive 
races, will hereafter be ruled by yet 
another people, who will take the place 
of the present possessors ; and with 
these prophetic words, he draws a pall 
over his country. 

^1 these various voices, of different 
times and countries, mingle and inter- 
twine in representing the great future 
of our Repubhc, which from small be- 
ginnings has already become great. 
It was at first only a grain of mustard- 
seed, " which is, indeed, the least of all 
seeds ; but when it is grown, it is the 
greatest among herbs and becomes a 
tree, so that the birds of the air come 
and lodge in the branches thereof." 
Better still, it was only a little leaven, 
but it is fast leavening the whole con- 
tinent. Nearly all who have prophe- 
sied speak of " America " or " North 
America," and not of any Hinited circle, 
colony, or state. It was so, at the 
beginning, with Sir Thomas Browne, 
and especially with Berkeley. During 
our Revolution the Colonies, strug- 
gling for independence, were always 
described by this continental designa- 
tion. They were already "America," 
or " North America," thus incidentally 
foreshadowing that coming time when 
the whole continent, with all its vari- 
ous States, shall be a Plural Unit, with 
one Constitution, one Liberty, and one 
Destiny. The theme was also taken 



3o6 



Prophetic Voices about Ai 



[September, 



up by the poet, and popularized in the 
often quoted lines : — 

" No pent-up Utica contracts your powers, 
But the whole boundless continent is yours." * 

Such grandeur may justly excite anx- 
iety rather than pride, for duties are in 
corresponding proportion. There is 
occasion for humility also, as the indi- 
vidual considers his own insignificance 
in the transcendent mass. The tiny 
polyp, in its unconscious life, builds the 
everlasting coral ; each citizen is little 
more than the industrious insect. The 
result is accomplished by continuous 
and combined exertion. Millions of cit- 
izens, working in obedience to nature, 
can accomplish anything. Of course, 
war is an instrumentality which a true 
civilization disowns. Here some of 
our prophets have erred. Sir Thomas 
Browne was so much overshadowed by 
his own age, that his vision was dark- 
ened by " great armies," and even " hos- 
tile and piratical attacks " on Europe. 
It was natural that D'Aranda, schooled 
in worldly aifairs, should imagine ^|lie 
new-born pow^r ready to seize the 
Spanish possessions. Among our own 
countrymen, Jefferson looked to war for 
the extension of dominion. The Flori- 
das, he says on one occasion, "are 
ours on the first moment of war, and 
until a war they are of no particular 
necessity to us." f Happily they were 
acquired in another way. Then again, 
while declaring that no constitution 

* By Jonathan M. Sewall, in an epilogue to Addi- 
son's tragedy of " Cato," written in 1778 for the 
Bow Street Theatre, Portsmouth, N. H. 

t Jefferson's Works, Vol. V. p. 444. 



was ever before so calculated as ours 
for extensive empire and self-govern- 
ment, and insisting upon Canada as a 
component part, he calmly says that 
" this would be, of course, in the first 
war." * Afterwards, while confessing a 
longing for Cuba, "as the most inter- 
esting addition that could ever be made 
to our system of States," he says that 
" he is sensible this can never be ob- 
tained, even with her own consent, 
without war." f Thus at each stage is 
the baptism of blood. In much better 
mood the good Bishop recognized em- 
pire as moving gently in the pathway 
of light. All this is much clearer now 
than when he prophesied. It is easy 
to see that empire obtained by force 
is unrepublican, and offensive to that 
first principle of our Union according 
to which all just government stands 
only on the consent of the governed. 
Our country needs no si'ch ally as 
war. Its destiny is mightier than 
war. Through peace it will have ev- 
erything. This is our talisman. Give 
us peace, and population will increase 
beyond all experience ; resources of 
all kinds will multiply infinitely ; arts 
will embellish the land with immortal 
beauty ; the name of Republic will be 
exalted, until every neighbor, yielding 
to irresistible attraction, will seek a 
new life in becoming a part of the 
great whole ; and the national example 
will be more puissant than army or 
navy for the conquest of the world. 

* Jefferson's Works, Vol. V. p. 444. 

t Ibid., Vol. VII. p. 316. See also pp. aS8, 399. 



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